Substitute School, First Semester
by Zero-Sennin
Summary: With the Gotei 13 at his back, Ichigo Kurosaki will learn what it means to be a Reaper. Even if it means twice the homework, twice the studying, twice the PE classes, and twice the obnoxious teachers. Part 1 of 2 or 3. Complete.
1. Lesson 1: Entrance Ceremony

_Substitute_ _School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 1: Introduction Ceremony, or Welcome to Substitute School_

* * *

**Saturday, May 16th, 5:15 PM**

**Karakura Town, Sakurabashi: Tsubakidai Park**

For as long as he could remember, there had been a few constants in Ichigo Kurosaki's life, constants that lived up to their name and outlasted all of the rocky changes that came his way.

1) His hair was strawberry-blonde/orange/whatever you wanted to call it, and a source of ridicule up until the point that he actually started beating up the bullies that made an issue out of it. Then it became a source of endless challenges and threats. (He was still dealing with that…by continuing to beat up all of the wannabe gangsters and assorted punks that decided to convince him to dye it. Or stop dyeing it.)

2) He could see ghosts, and oftentimes used both his gods-given brains and the skills he'd obtained from dealing with complaints about his hair to satisfy the spirits' unrequited needs. Not exactly exorcism, but he didn't know what else to call it.

The second constant had recently given him no end of trouble two nights ago—he'd interacted with a ghost called Rukia Kuchiki, a "Soul Reaper" who'd passed into his room and performed a "Soul Burial" on another ghost that had somehow or other wound up nearby. Before he'd even had a chance to recover from that, a monster (a Hollow, his fuzzy memory stated, though knowing his track record, he probably had it wrong) had shown up at his house and attacked his family. Rukia sprang into action, sword and all, only to get hurt protecting him, and she was forced to give her powers to him…by stabbing him in the stomach.

Bedecked in the same black robes that she had worn, he had killed the Hollow with a single swing of his own oversized blade, shaped vaguely like a thick katana with a pair of blue tassels hanging from the end, and then turned to face his benefactor of sorts. The last sight he had of her was somewhat strange—her outer kimono was a dusty ash-gray, somewhere between black and white, and despite her wounds, she was smiling softly at him, as if to say "Good job".

Then everything went black.

When he awoke the next day, he had a pounding headache, and no one remembered a thing—his father and twin sisters were all convinced that a truck had crashed into the house in the middle of the night, and not that they had been visited by a soul-eating monster intent on having them for dinner.

Was that weird? Hell, yes. Did he care? Hell, no. If they didn't remember, it spared them all a lot of trouble…and meant that maybe, just maybe, things really hadn't happened as he remembered, that it had all been some sort of odd dream

At any rate, whether it happened or not, he'd done his duty for the Reaper girl, and hadn't seen her since, so he assumed that he was done entirely with her and her kind…

…Up until two Soul Reapers strode up to him in the middle of his normal Saturday stroll through Tsubakidai Park with stern and serious expressions on their faces.

Now they stood side-by-side on the grassy field, scrutinizing him coldly and silently. Despite his puzzlement, Ichigo stood a little straighter and crossed his arms, returning their stares until the shorter of the two, with fire-red hair pulled up in a topknot/ponytail that made his head vaguely resemble a pineapple, snorted disdainfully and crossed his arms.

"Captain, _this_ is the criminal we were sent here to get? He's a kid, for God's sake. He barely has any of Rukia's spiritual energy on him. Her powers are almost gone by now, I figure."

The Captain barely spared a glance at the red-haired man; the slight action did nothing to ruffle the senior officer's dark, shoulder-length hair, nor the white hairpiece sitting above the few loose bangs he had or its companion on the right side of his head. "We shall see how accurate that statement is soon enough, Lieutenant Abarai." Focusing his attention and his gray eyes on Ichigo, the Captain continued, "You_are _Ichigo Kurosaki, yes?"

"I am," the boy replied shortly. "What do you want to make of it?"

In response, the Captain reached within his inner robes and withdrew a tube, topped with a skull sporting a bandage and a top hat, which was full of round pills of some sort. "Personally, I have no quarrel with you. The Soul Society, however, has ordered your immediate retrieval, so that you may give your deposition for the trial of your accomplice, Rukia Kuchiki. To that end, you must ingest one of these Soul Candies and come with us, or face forcible removal of your Reaper powers—which will more than likely result in severe injury to your person."

Ichigo blinked in confusion, but quickly recomposed himself. "Kuchiki's on trial? I'm her 'accomplice'? What did she do and what do I have to do with it?"

"In case you hadn't figured it out yet, genius, a Soul Reaper isn't supposed to give powers to a human," Lieutenant Abarai said mockingly. "Now, come along with us—or, if you want to be difficult, we can take care of your powers like the Captain said, and then we can be on our way."

"I should also inform you that refusing to come with us will make you responsible for ending her career as a Soul Reaper…by exile or execution," the captain added, his neutral face the perfect contrast to Abarai's sneer.

That comment made Ichigo's tough front drop like a rock. "What the hell?" he barked, clenching his fists. "What do you mean exile or execution? She saved my life, dammit! How is that wrong? Tell me!"

"Trust me, this isn't pleasant for him or for me, regardless of what he's saying," interrupted Abarai, his taunting tone replaced by impassivity similar to the Captain's. "Besides all that, you're making this even more troublesome by arguing about our reasons instead of shutting your pie-hole and coming along with us so that she stands a better chance of not dying."

Frustrated, Ichigo let the next retort he had planned die on his lips, staying silent as the wind rustled the nearby trees. For a moment, he rumpled his hair violently with his right hand, trying to figure out what he was going to do. Putting aside his confusion at the fact that the events of that night had really occurred, he focused on the facts: even though he didn't know her, he didn't want Rukia to die because she had made the choice to trust and save him—on the other hand, he had no idea how long this would take, or what could happen to him if things went badly. Eventually, though, he sighed huffily and held out his hand, scowling.

"I'll cooperate. But…Let's make it quick, all right? My father's expecting me back home at some point."

The Captain merely nodded, popped the top off of the tube he held, and shook a candy into Ichigo's palm. After a moment, the teen swallowed it whole, and he immediately began to feel the effects—it was as if he'd been stabbed by Rukia's sword again, but instead of a stabbing force pushing him out of his body, it was more like he was…molting out of it. Soon enough, the moment passed, and once again, Ichigo found himself, dressed as a Reaper down to the white, split-toe _tabi _socks and straw sandals. The large katana-like blade he'd slain the Hollow with was on his back, fastened by a thick strap-with-buckle that crossed his chest, and his body was insensately sprawled out behind him.

Both Lieutenant Abarai and the Captain raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. Despite the fact that Rukia's spiritual energy was clearly the source of most of his spiritual energy, the level of power he currently exhibited could easily dwarf the energy of most rank-and-file Reapers if it were refined even slightly. Odder yet, there was another current of power flowing through him, deep below what was present now—it was much like an ocean or a sea, in motion but barely disturbed, still lacking some impetus to churn the waters. In Soul Reapers, that kind of power had to be pretty much innate, natural…and from what the Captain could feel of this hidden strength, as well as what little of Ichigo's personal spiritual energy was present in his aura now, it was very much Ichigo's own.

…_This must be brought to Captain-General Yamamoto's attention as soon as possible,_ the Captain thought. _This boy…has at least the spiritual potential to be a prodigy._

Knowing that Abarai hadn't managed to sense the depths of Ichigo's strength (and wishing to continue the mission) the Captain cleared his throat loudly, put his hand firmly on Ichigo's shoulder, and turned the boy around to face his own body…which was now standing up and saluting.

"Your body is now…possessed…by the intelligence within the Soul Candy," the Captain said. "Give it instructions on how to behave like you, and how to recognize your family members. It will remember what you tell it and act accordingly."

Ichigo looked back at the Captain with an incredulous glare, and then focused on his body again—now he (or it?) was smiling broadly. _Smiling_.

_Mental note to self, Ichigo. Never, ever smile—at least, not like that. Way too creepy._

"Hello, good sir!" The Soul-Candy-in-Ichigo's-body spoke with such unbridled enthusiasm that Ichigo literally felt himself becoming bodily ill. "I am Alfred. How may I serve you today?"

"F-fine…I guess," Ichigo mumbled. Not only was the Soul Candy's attitude annoying, but the fact that the strawberry-blonde was, effectively, talking with his possessed body was making things even odder. "Look, don't worry about that. Listen carefully to what I tell you so that you don't look too suspicious, all right? Now come on, we'll walk and talk. My house isn't too far from here but I can't trust you to not get lost or something."

Alfred saluted, causing Ichigo's face to twitch slightly, but the Soul Candy took no notice and fell in step behind him as he left. Lieutenant Abarai and the Captain did the same, and as they walked to the northwest, the tail of the latter's pale-green scarf fluttered lightly on the breeze.

* * *

By the time they arrived at the Kurosaki house, Alfred, to Ichigo's surprise, was more than prepared to impersonate the strawberry-blonde boy. The Soul Candy had easily remembered all of Ichigo's explanations, and while he (Ichigo had asked, and Alfred had stated that it was better to refer to a Candy by its apparent gender, making "he" better than "it" in this case) hadn't stopped his perpetual salutes, he did have a perfect imitation of Ichigo's scowl down pat.

_Actually, now that he's looking more like me I'm even more creeped out than I was before, _Ichigo admitted to himself as they came to the door. _Today has just been so damn WEIRD._

"Don't worry, Master Kurosaki," Alfred said suddenly, breaking Ichigo out of his little reverie. "I shall represent you well. Misses Karin and Yuzu shall be safe with me, and Master Old Man will be gloriously bruised and defeated upon your return."

"…sounds…good," Ichigo replied hesitantly. "If you can help it, though, you should stick to the plan."

Alfred nodded. "Eat lunch, and dinner, entirely. Go upstairs to the room with the number 15 on the door. Read if I choose to, but don't touch anything else. Hit Master Old Man in the face if and/or when he bursts into the room. Use the bathroom when I feel the odd pressure in my…bladder. Keep scowling or acting bothered unless Mistress Yuzu says or does something cute, at which point a brief smile is acceptable. I understand and remember entirely, Master Kurosaki. Fare well on your journey!"

With a final salute, Alfred bowed to the Lieutenant and the Captain, then walked into the house, adopting Ichigo's slight slouch and confident gait as he crossed the threshold and announced, "I'm back!"; at the same time, the Captain drew the blade at his side and inserted it into the wall, turning it. When he did this, a thin line ran down the center of the wall, and a pair of sliding doors formed, sliding outwards to reveal another, smaller set of the same doors deeper within it; those, in turn opened to reveal a blinding white expanse. Three black butterflies—_Hell Butterflies, right?_ Ichigo remembered from Rukia's lecture two nights before—came from the portal; a single one alighted on the Captain's hand. He regarded it impassively for a moment, and then raised his hand towards the portal, which it, and the other two, flitted directly towards and through.

Ichigo stared nervously at the new portal, and eventually spared a glance back at Abarai and the Captain to see if either of them had any intention of going first—their flat looks gave him the distinct impression that they did not. At all.

Resigned, Ichigo willed himself forward, taking the two steps into the portal as if he were a condemned man.

In an instant, Karakura Town behind him was swallowed by the light, and briefly, he was insensate—white filled his eyes his ears his throat his everything…

* * *

And then, without warning, without even realizing it, he was on bended knee, looking down at the dirt with a high wind blowing all around him. Confused, he got to his feet in a flash and began to look around wildly; to his surprise, he saw that he was atop a rocky, high hill. In front of him, he saw a large wooden frame that extended far above him; behind him, Abarai and the Captain emerged from the glowing portal behind him, which shut as soon as they exited.

Ichigo began to ask, his voice hoarse, "What the hell is going on—", but he was interrupted by the appearance of another Reaper—a nondescript, brown-haired man, in front of him; the man had simply appeared as a shapeless blur of black motion, further startling the already-shocked Ichigo.

"Lieutenant Abarai, Captain Kuchiki," the brunet said, with sharp salutes to each man, missing the start Ichigo gave at the name 'Captain Kuchiki', "Captain-General Yamamoto and Captain Soifon are waiting for you and the illegal substitute at the Underground Assembly Hall. Report there as quickly as possible, if you could, please."

Captain Kuchiki nodded, and then spared another of his calm glances at the Lieutenant. "Abarai, return to the division and prepare my paperwork. Once I have attended to this matter, I intend to finish it today."

Abarai said, "Yes, sir," and turned on his heel, vanishing in the same way that the messenger had arrived—not a second later, the messenger departed as well, and Captain Kuchiki began to walk forward, seemingly ignorant of the fact that Ichigo was not following him, but was actually trying to conceive some way of murdering him where he stood and getting away with it.

"Now this is just ridiculous," the teenager growled angrily, moving to match Kuchiki's businesslike pace. "You're related to Kuchiki and you're so damn stoic about this whole possibility of execution bull? What the hell is wrong with you? Are you so concerned with the damn rules that you can't even give a crap about your own family? Even if she's just a cousin or something, you—"

"If you must insist on doing this," interrupted Kuchiki calmly, "Rukia is my sister. And when I spoke earlier, I spoke of the consequences she faces—no more, no less. Insofar as the law is concerned, she has committed a crime, regardless of her reasoning for acting in the way that she chose to act, and thus, she is subject to the judgement of the law."

Ichigo tightened his glare on Kuchiki's back, as if he was trying to use the fire in his eyes to set the Captain's white overcoat on fire, starting from the diamond on the back of the garment that contained the kanji for "six". Though he must have damn well known that the strawberry-blonde was more than angry at him (at least, that was what Ichigo thought), Kuchiki kept talking, his voice smooth as per usual.

"You are also assuming that I am a heartless, cynical man who is far more interested in the rule of the law than of life itself. Being that my job entails the protection of lives, I would say that lacking empathy would have disqualified me from this position a long time ago. That said, my intention in speaking and acting as I have so far is simple: my emotions will not sway the individuals that are at present responsible for Rukia's life. If there is any chance at stopping her from dying, it is to be found in following procedure so that the evidence makes her case, and makes it well."

Ichigo would've been the first person to admit that he was bad at reading between the lines in any given situation at any given time, but the full import, and true meaning, of what Kuchiki had just finished saying was more than obvious to him: _I'm trying to keep her safe the only way that I know will actually keep her safe, so shut your trap and help me do this right, because we only have one shot._

That humbled Ichigo somewhat, and led him to realize that perhaps the man wasn't as flawed a brother as he'd initially assumed; rather than talking uselessly at the Captain, he chose to look around at the buildings below. He felt as if he'd dropped straight into the feudal area—from what he could see the buildings had styled roofs, multiple tiers, or both. Beyond a certain point, he could even see a circular wall around the area, separating one set of buildings from an even larger urban sprawl.

Directly across from where they stood, over a wooden bridge, stood a tower atop a multi-tiered structure of some sort. On roughly the same level as the tower-structure's base, there stood a courtyard with a square body of water in the middle and what appeared to be a white circle at the center of that; the whole thing was surrounded by an equally square gate.

Perplexed, Ichigo asked, without expecting any real answer, "What is this place called, anyway?"

"Seireitei, the Court of Pure Souls," Captain Kuchiki answered, barely turning his head to look back at Ichigo. "It is the exclusive residence of the Soul Reapers' main organization, the Gotei 13, as well as the Central 46, the law-making body of Soul Society. I am captain of the Gotei 13's Sixth Division, and Lieutenant Abarai is my second-in-command—my second seat."

"…and Kuchiki is…?"

"An unseated officer of the Thirteenth Division."

Ichigo nodded; it was simple enough to understand. "So, this Captain-General Yamamoto is the head of the First Division, right? I'm assuming, then, that he's your boss."

"That is correct. He is also the oldest Soul Reaper in existence, and founded the Academy that trains recruits from the outlying areas of Soul Society to become Reapers."

If he felt like having Kuchiki's respect for him drop any lower (if that was at all possible), Ichigo would've whistled. As it was, though, he nodded again, and asked, "How is this whole thing going to work anyway? My 'deposition' or whatever it is you people need from me, I mean."

"You will give testimony before the Central 46 in the presence of a trained interrogator, the Captain-General, and a recorder. Additionally, the Captain-General will assess your power level, or at least I will recommend that he does."

"Wait—why would he need to do that?"

"You are not aware of this, obviously," Kuchiki replied, putting a slight amount of 'shut up now' tone into his voice as he faced forwards again, "but your powers, though awakened by Rukia's transfer, seem to stem in part from a larger pool that exists within you. If you were properly trained, it is likely that you could shed the vestiges of her spiritual energy and become a Reaper in your own right—giving you access to far more power than what you wield now. But that is not likely to happen. The 46 do not look kindly upon what Rukia has done."

That tidbit of info piqued Ichigo's interest. As much of a pain as this whole 'Reaper' gig was turning out to be, being able to do what Reapers did could prove useful if his family was targeted by Hollows again—especially since Rukia had posited that his presence had been the draw for the monster that came to his house in the first place.

_Of course, who's to say that I'll even get a chance to set things up like that,_ he admitted to himself. _Kuchiki's in a real crap-storm right now and after all's said and done they might maim me to get rid of these powers anyway, just like Abarai said._

He groaned and rubbed his forehead in exasperation. _Being in this place is like being in school, I swear. Bunch of stupid rules, only that there's no such thing as detention for being naughty._

"Where is she?"

"She has already been put before the Central 46 to give her deposition, and has been moved to Second Division headquarters in containment. You will be taken before them as well, and you must observe protocol or you will be punished severely."

Ichigo tensed. "Is that a threat?"

"Hardly. It is the truth."

Though Kuchiki's voice hadn't changed in the slightest, some sort of overtone in his word choice and manner of speaking left Ichigo silent. Without saying a word, Kuchiki strode over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I am sorry to…come into your personal space in this manner, but we must move quickly," he said. "Do not blink."

"What are you—?"

In the blink of an eye, Ichigo felt himself jerked forward violently, the world around him blurred into a mess of color and motion. Almost as abruptly, for the briefest of moments, everything seemed to snap back to normal, and he thought he was standing with Kuchiki on one of the lower levels of the tower architecture; however, the moment passed in yet another violent motion, and he found himself standing in front of the very gates of the complex he'd seen from up above. Taking a huge, choked breath, Ichigo blinked and shook his head rapidly, trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Those were Flash Steps," said Kuchiki, removing his hand from Ichigo's shoulder as he answered the boy's unspoken question. "A common form of high-speed movement, much faster than traditional walking. It is a little disconcerting if you are unprepared for it."

After finally regaining himself, Ichigo said, "Well, you did say we were in a hurry. Lead the way already."

Kuchiki made no sign of acknowledging that, instead turning his back to Ichigo and continuing to walk forward; hesitantly, Ichigo followed him through the gates in front of them, passing by a pair of guards robed in all black, down to their handkerchief-like masks.

Just like what he'd seen from above, the square lake lay in front of them; however, in front of the bridge that led to the white building in the center stood two Soul Reapers, each a startling contrast to the other.

The one on the left was a tall, wizened old man, with a long white mustache, bushy eyebrows, and accompanying beard; the latter had a purple ribbon wrapped securely around it. He was bald aside from that, with a prominent X-shaped scar well above his right eye, and leaned on a gnarled cane. He had a sleeveless white coat, exactly like Kuchiki's, but it was draped over his shoulders, not worn normally, and his eyes were closed, giving the impression that he was out on his feet.

The other Reaper was much smaller than him, and had the majority of her dark, short-cut hair in a pair of cloth-wrapped braids, with a golden ring on each end; some of her hair flared out to the side just above where the wrappings began. Like Kuchiki and the old man, she wore a coat, but she had on a yellow sash over it, tied around her waist with a bow at the front. Also, unlike the other Reapers Ichigo had seen, who wore sandals and ankle-high split toe socks, she had on a pair of Chinese-styled black slippers. Her eyes were a narrow, hard gray, and her square-cut bangs framed her face above her eyes while loose strands of hair framed the sides.

"Captain-General Yamamoto, Captain Soifon," Kuchiki said calmly, inclining his head to the old man, then the woman, as he said each name. "I have brought Ichigo Kurosaki, as requested."

Yamamoto returned the nod slowly, causing the sunlight to gleam slightly on his forehead. "Good work, Captain Kuchiki. We will take care of the boy from here. You may return to your division."

Kuchiki inclined his head again. "As you wish. But before I go, I would like to ask you for a small boon, Captain-General."

"And that would be?"

"I would like you to inspect Kurosaki's spirit, if you could. I think that he may have latent spirit powers of his own."

"Officer Kuchiki did say as much in her testimony," Yamamoto said, turning to face Ichigo. "She reported that he was not only able to see her, but that he was able to break a binding Kidouwith nothing but his willpower. Even if it was only the first-level incantation, that sort of incident is still unusual."

He opened one eye slightly, and Ichigo suddenly felt a thrill run through him as the single red eye seemed to pierce him from tip to toe, analyzing every part of him; after a moment, though, the eye closed, and Yamamoto made a thoughtful humming sound.

"He has Officer Kuchiki's signature all over him, but there is something deeper. It is barely noticeable, but it _is _there. Perhaps we may need to have this further investigated. But that will wait until after this trial."

"Thank you for confirming my findings, Captain-General," Kuchiki replied. He turned to leave, but before disappearing with another Flash Step, he looked at Ichigo.

"Remember, Ichigo Kurosaki. Obey the protocol. Do not do anything you are not told to do."

And with that, he vanished.

For a short time, Ichigo stared at the spot where Kuchiki had been standing, but eventually turned back towards the other two Reapers.

"I'm ready whenever you two are," he said, fingering the strap of his sword sheathe. "Lead the way."

Captain-General Yamamoto immediately took the lead, and Soifon fell in behind him, leaving Ichigo at the very back. As they crossed the bridge, Soifon began to speak, her voice calm, but edged with a sharpness that unnerved Ichigo.

"The 46 will ask you questions about what happened on the night that Officer Kuchiki gave you her powers. Your job is to answer them precisely and volunteer no information aside from that. If you attempt to do so they will most likely hold you in contempt of the court and your evidence will be thrown out."

"OK, that's fair," Ichigo said, starting a frown as they entered the building and began to descend down a somewhat gentle slope. "Anything else I need to avoid doing?"

"Do not lie. I will be watching you. I will know if you are trying to conceal the truth." Her tone became even more foreboding. "And I will tell them that you are being untruthful."

_Well, gee. That's nice, _Ichigo thought. _More reason to be afraid of you, huh?_

"I get it, lady. You don't have to threaten me."

"My name, so far as you are concerned, is 'Captain Soifon'," she responded tightly. "Watch your manners, Kurosaki, or you will cause a lot of trouble for yourself today."

Ichigo sighed as the incline finally leveled off, leading to an open doorway with a set of stairs that continued to lead downward. From what he could see through the opening, there was another building, roughly octagonal in shape, on the floor below; that had to be where they were headed, as it was the only structure there.

"Yes, Captain Soifon," he said, purposely avoiding any injection of sarcasm into the form of address.

She spared him a brief glance, taking note that he was attempting to shrink his irreverent scowl, and then turned her focus back to the front, braids bouncing as they made their way down the stairs and across the floor, into the central building.

* * *

Inside the room, there were 46 separate paper screens on three different levels of amphitheater-styled seating; each screen had a number on it, and the silhouette of a person sitting down could be seen behind each one. Yamamoto and Soifon immediately split apart as they entered, leaving Ichigo to stand just beyond the doorway; hesitantly, he willed himself forward to stand at the center of the room and waited quietly, figuring that it would be best to let them address him.

Directly in front of him, and two levels above, 'Number 1' spoke from behind his screen, his voice distinctly male and gruff. "State your name, age, and place of residence, defendant."

After swallowing a lump in his throat and working to keep his voice and speaking style within 'acceptable levels', Ichigo replied, "Ichigo Kurosaki, age fifteen, of Karakura Town."

"Did you receive powers from Officer Rukia Kuchiki of the Thirteenth Division two days ago when your place of residence was attacked by a Hollow?"

Ichigo nodded. "I did."

"Did you break her binding Kidouspell with your sheer willpower?"

"Yes, I did."

A ripple of shocked murmurs passed through the group; above the noise, from one level above and behind Ichigo, soft-spoken, boyish-sounding 'Number 12' asked, "Why did she offer you her power?"

"She was injured by the Hollow when she protected me, and offered me the power so that I could protect my father and my sisters."

"And you were the one to purify the Hollow?" asked 'Number 27''s female voice, seated at the highest level and two seats left of the center.

Ichigo blinked. "I'm sorry, did you say 'purify'? Well…I struck it down with the sword, and after that, I remember seeing…Officer Kuchiki…one more time. The rest is a blank. The next morning I woke up in my room and no one remembered a thing."

Soifon scowled at his _faux pas _of answering a question with a question, but it went unnoticed, as Number 1 said, "Then you did purify it. When a Soul Reaper 'kills' a Hollow, it is absolved of its sins as a Hollow and brought to this world. And the amnesia your family experienced is normal—the incident was wiped from their memories." There was silence for a time, and then he continued. "And this is the first time you have been removed from your body since that event, correct?"

Once again, Ichigo nodded. "Yes, sir, this is the first time."

The entire chamber fell silent; then, 'Number 1' shifted to look at Captain-General Yamamoto, and Soifon, before turning his attention back to Ichigo.

"Captain-General Yamamoto, Captain Soifon. Do you have any extra observations to make at this time?"

"He has the potential to develop powers of his own, your Honor," Yamamoto said simply. "The size of his zanpakutoualone implies that there is a vast amount of energy he has at his disposal from somewhere within him, but its overall composition is likely weak due to his lack of training."

"Would you need your Twelfth Division to analyze him further in regards to just how much power and ability he could gain?"

"That would be ideal, sir."

"He has been truthful to you in his testimony, your Honor," Soifon added. "Aside from that I have nothing to say."

The room filled with murmurs as the members of the 46 began to debate and discuss with each other; amongst their whispers, Ichigo thought he heard something to the effect of 'perhaps he may be useful as some sort of tool' or 'we should remove his powers post-haste', but they were just quiet enough to make a full confirmation difficult.

Eventually, though, the noise died down by mutual consent, and after the final whispers faded, 'Number 1' spoke again.

"Ichigo Kurosaki, you are charged with the crime of illegally utilizing Soul Reaper powers. Your accomplice, Officer Rukia Kuchiki, is charged with the crime of illegally conferring unto you Soul Reaper powers. Normally, her punishment would be either exile or death, while yours would be the immediate removal of her powers. However…considering that both your testimony and Officer Kuchiki's match, and the…situation, we are willing to offer one alternative that will serve both of you well—you may, if you so choose, be allowed to become a Deputy Reaper in service to Soul Society, and she would become your contact with us. Your duty would be to serve in this capacity for as long as you are able, and the same conditions would also carry over to your life after your death. "

Yamamoto allowed his eyes to open a fraction, while Soifon tensed up considerably, but they both held their tongues. Ichigo almost said something, but instinctively kept his mouth shut for fear of messing something up.

"Will you accept this offer or not?"

"…if I may, your Honor…I…I have to ask something," Ichigo finally managed to stammer.

Soifon again felt a twinge of annoyance work its way through her, but the impulse to silence Ichigo was itself silenced when Number 1 actually deigned to answer him.

"And that would be?"

"What would happen to Kuchiki if I were to turn you down? Would she…still be exiled? Or…killed?"

"We are willing to lessen her sentence whether you accept or decline, given that she was, in some way, attempting to do her duty when she broke the law. It was not the only decision she could have made, but it is plain to see why she chose it."

Ichigo, surprised that he hadn't been put in contempt of court or whatever, let out a small breath and looked down at his hands, the robes he wore.

_I'm only like this because I wanted to protect my family, _he thought. _If I…If I accept this power, then I can keep on doing that. I can help make up for what my idiocy cost Kuchiki. I can thank her for saving all of our lives._

He swallowed another lump, but his determination to pay Rukia back eventually overrode everything else that he felt.

"I'll do it."

'Number 1' nodded sagely, and said, raising his voice, "Ichigo Kurosaki, your punishment is service to Soul Society for the rest of your human life, and the rest of your first life in Soul Society, as a Soul Reaper. You are now pledged to honor this contract with everything that you are, and it is expected that you will do so until you are no longer bound to it. Captain-General Yamamoto, Captain Soifon. Remove the defendant from our presence and send him home. It is now the Gotei 13's responsibility to oversee his training."

Yamamoto and Soifon bowed, and immediately moved towards the doorway; Ichigo automatically fell into step behind Soifon, and spared one last glance over his shoulder at the 46 men and women in the chamber before he left it for good and the door closed behind him.

"You have the luck of the gods, boy," Yamamoto said dryly. "Either that, or the 46 are more interested in your potential for good than your potential for harm."

Soifon muttered something in what Ichigo could have sworn was Chinese, but he had no way of knowing for sure.

As they ascended the slope, the light of the outside shining brightly above them, Yamamoto spoke again.

"We'll begin right away with your…community service. Officer Kuchiki will be the one to bring you here considering that she is now your link with us. You'll receive training from her and her Captain in basic Reaper matters, and conduct fieldwork in Karakura with her as well. Clear your schedule for tomorrow, understood?"

"Yes, sir," Ichigo replied, recognizing the authority the old man was putting into his voice. "I'll be ready."

Finally, they stepped back into the light of Seireitei, and as they crossed the bridge again, Ichigo looked up at the sky and managed a small grin.

"Looks like I'm in this for the long haul."

* * *

Once they arrived at the gate, Yamamoto looked over at Soifon. "Captain. Take Kurosaki to meet Officer Kuchiki. Have her escort him back home and inform her of her duties if the Hell Butterflies have not already done so. I have business to attend to, and we will have our captains' meeting regarding this matter later on."

"As you command, sir," Soifon said.

Without preamble, Yamamoto flash-stepped away, and Soifon gave Ichigo the wary eye for a brief moment before letting off a quiet sigh. "Give me your shoulder. We're going to move quickly."

A few flashes later, Ichigo found himself and Soifon standing in front of a flight of stone stairs, with two red pillars on each side. Without pausing, Soifon strode right up, leaving Ichigo to stumble somewhat comically after her, as his senses were still distorted from their movement speed—he could swear that she'd been even faster than Kuchiki when she moved, but he had no willpower to ask.

At the top of the stairs, a fairly normal building, much like the others, greeted them, but rather than go inside, Soifon simply stood in the courtyard, arms crossed as she stood at the doorway. In an instant, another fully-black-garbed individual appeared in front of her with the swish of Flash Steps, falling to one knee almost immediately.

"Have you received the Hell Butterfly from the Central 46 regarding Officer Rukia Kuchiki's punishment yet?" she asked.

"We have, ma'am. Officer Kuchiki is ready to be turned over to your service as you demand. We also received a care package from the Twelfth Division for the deputy Reaper."

"Bring them both here, then, and requisition a pair of Hell Butterflies to guide them back. Do it quickly. I need to get back to work."

The Reaper flash-stepped away, and Ichigo took a moment to look around at the Second Division Barracks, admiring the green forest that was all around them, and the relative stillness and quiescence that followed it. The moment was interrupted when Soifon audibly shifted to face him with her arms crossed, and continued to stare at him until he met her gaze with his normal scowl.

"OK, look, Captain Soifon. Whatever I did, I'm sorry. You can stop looking at me like I'm the devil now, thank you very much."

"Your attitude is poor, boy," she said. "Are you not aware of what you have committed yourself to by accepting this punishment from Central 46?"

He crossed his arms as well and continued to look down at her. "I am, yes. Basically they've got me until I die, and then even after that. But if it gives me the strength to make sure that what happened when Kuchiki saved my life doesn't happen again, then I don't care. The people I care about, my family…they're more important than anything. I won't lose them if I have the power to prevent it."

As he spoke the last words, his hands clenched, bunching up the sleeves of his robe; unbidden, memories of a rainy day by the riverbank flashed through his mind until he forcibly pushed them away.

Soifon made a dismissive humming noise and turned away from him. "Do not singularly devote yourself to only your family as your protectorate. There are others that you must be aware of, others that deserve your protection as much as they do. Your job as a Soul Reaper will be to render that duty to all beings of the Living World. Accept that now or your 'service' will be both miserable and half-hearted."

Before Ichigo could respond, Soifon's subordinate returned with Rukia in tow; she was holding onto a small, wrapped-up parcel that was somewhat tucked under her shoulder. The small Reaper's injuries from the Hollow attack had healed over fairly well by appearances, though she was still a little pale and her robes were slightly off-black as opposed to the midnight dark of regular robes. Her eyes, violet-blue as always, were darkened in thought, though seeing Ichigo's strawberry-blonde mop of hair quickly cleared her thoughts.

"…I heard about the deal you made with the Central 46," she said, frowning somewhat as she shifted the package. "…Why would you do such a thing? Are you not aware of what you have done?"

Ichigo barely failed to stop his teeth from grinding together. "And just when I already answered that—Look, you saved my life. I did my duty and returned the favor then, and this whole 'be a deputy Reaper thing' is the same thing—you saved me, I'm saving you. I don't let other people take the fall for the choices I make. That's not my style."

The short outburst shut Rukia up, and satisfied with that, Ichigo allowed himself a confident smirk.

"So let's not worry about the 'whys' and concentrate on what we've got to do. When are we gonna start this whole Soul Reaper business?"

"Tomorrow," Soifon said flatly. "We have no time to spare for you anymore today. Take him home."

As if Soifon's words had been heard by the universe itself, the pair of Hell Butterflies she'd asked for came down to them, and without hesitation, Soifon drew the short sword set horizontally at her back and thrust it into thin air. Just like Kuchiki's sword caused a portal to open in the wall of Ichigo's house, the double pair of sliding doors revealed themselves and opened up without delay. Unafraid, Ichigo and Rukia entered, and everything faded to white as the doors closed behind them.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_So I've finally decided to toss my hat in the ring and try this out again._

_This story, with any luck, won't extend beyond thirty or so chapters—I've got a good plan this time. Also, I've decided that in the interest of actually preserving plot twists, I'm being a lot less chatty about the stuff that's going to happen in these notes than I was with 'The King of Street Fighters'._

_Sadly, with no official Soul Society map available, I fudged things a bit as far as layout. I'll keep it internally consistent, but everything in relation to everything else is pretty much based off of the map used for role-play at bleachforums(dot)com (I say 'pretty much' because I can't say I'm using it whole-cloth)._

_Considering that this is an English-language story, I'll be using the English terms for most of the different items in the Bleach world, with the exception of certain terms that are fine the way they are (i.e., zanpakutou, Shikai, Bankai, Gotei 13, Seireitei). As far as Romanization of names goes, I'm going to stick to official spellings with everyone, some of which have changed since I started this a while ago, and use long vowel sounds in names when appropriate (you see this with Juushirou, Ukitake's first name)._

_Regarding the characterization of the Central 46 in this chapter, I had a choice of either going directly with the manga/anime portrayal, or to adapt their behavior and train of thought to accommodate the story a little bit better. I am going with the latter. Forgive me that sin._

_I have also shifted the timeline around a little bit so that Ichigo becomes a Reaper in the middle of a weekend as opposed to at an end of it, just so that the events of the next chapter can occur._

_I'll be a lot more responsive to you reviewers as best I can. I'll make nods to a few of you here in this Teacher's Notes corner, but most of it will probably be acknowledged through direct response to your reviews._

_That's all for this time; see you next 'class'._

_~Zero-Sennin_


	2. Lesson 2: Reaper Basics 101

_Substitute_ _School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 2: Reaper Basics 101, or Swordplay for Dummies_

* * *

**Saturday, May 16th, 7:15 PM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase: Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

To Ichigo's surprise, the Hell Butterflies let them out right in front of his house. When he asked Rukia how, she replied, "I provided the information to the Reaper that brought me out of confinement and sent the butterflies to us," and proceeded to grab him by the collar, pull him around to his window, and leap up and into the sill on the second floor without much trouble.

When they entered his room, Rukia had opened up the package to reveal a bronze-ish badge shaped like a 'Superman' symbol with a stylized skull on it and a rope tied to a hole in the top-center, and what appeared to be a regular cell phone (a "Soul Phone", she'd called it, but she didn't explain too much about it aside from saying 'it is precisely like my phone'). When Ichigo pressed the badge to the forehead of his body, he ejected the Alfred pill out of the back of his head immediately, and simply by touching his now empty body reunited with it.

Surprisingly, the entire affair with Soul Society had only eaten up about two hours or so, making it around 7:30 in the evening when he returned. With all due haste, he said goodbye to Rukia, who was still too injured to go back to active duty in Karakura Town, and headed downstairs to eat dinner before Yuzu got worried.

At the table, he was surprised to see that his father's face was covered in bandages, but he soon grinned when the Kurosaki patriarch gave him a pained grimace.

_Looks like Alfred isn't too bad after all._

* * *

Upon returning upstairs, dinner sitting heavily in his stomach, he was struck with a sudden sense of weariness, and after securing the pill in a cloth in his desk drawer, he took all of three steps before he promptly passed out on his bed.

_Almost instantly, Ichigo found himself within what appeared to be a pristine cityscape, with only one major oddity—he was not only standing on a skyscraper, but was standing on the side of it, with many more of the same buildings surrounding him. To make things even stranger, the orientation of the horizon and skyline was such that moving towards the top of the building would be a lot like moving sideways._

_At the top of the building, far ahead of him, stood a figure, cloaked in black, with what appeared to be long, shaggy dark hair, which streamed behind him or her. Confused, Ichigo stepped forward, tentatively at first but with more confidence as he realized he wasn't going to fall, barely noticing the wind that blew at his Reaper's robes. Before he even got halfway to where the figure stood, it vanished without explanation, and he stopped, confused._

"_What the hell is all of this crap?" Ichigo yelled in confusion, looking around for any sign of the person he'd just seen._

"_**This is the inner world. My world, a reflection of your heart, and your mind; a reflection of the power we wield."**_

_To Ichigo's consternation, the figure was standing before him now, appearing from nothing and nowhere, a man with lined eyes and orange-tinted sunglasses, vaguely w-shaped. Ichigo's initial perception had been correct; the middle-aged man had an abundance of shaggy brown hair flowing down and behind his shoulders._

"_So who are you then, some sort of repressed trauma or something?"_

"_**I am your zanpakutou, your blade…or, to be more precise, the spirit of your zanpakutou. I am called…****."**_

_Ichigo scrunched his brows in confusion. The man's deep, assured voice had simply stopped when he introduced himself; it was as if someone had hit the mute button for that one moment and then turned the sound back on._

"_I didn't hear anything, old man. Could you repeat that?"_

"_**If you cannot hear, then you are not ready," **__the man said. __**"You still cling to Rukia Kuchiki's strength—it is what makes you a Soul Reaper. I am not representative of that power. I am representative of yours, of what you have yet to reach. The most contact I can have with you for now is to touch your spirit through the power she gave you."**_

_He reached out and put a hand on Ichigo's shoulder, and then pushed the strawberry-blonde boy backwards with a single hard shove, throwing him down to the inky blackness at the base of the skyscraper._

"_**You must progress, Ichigo. Progress, and throw off the shackles of Rukia Kuchiki's power. Progress, and awaken your own strength. Progress, and return to this place, and be worthy of hearing my name!"**_

* * *

**Sunday, May 17th, 7:30 AM**

**Karakura** **Town, Minamikawase: Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

Before Ichigo could hit the ground, he jerked awake abruptly; immediately cognizant of a weight on his stomach that wasn't the food he'd eaten, he began to grope blindly at it, only to have his hands slapped away and Rukia's irritated voice cut through his sleepy stupor.

"Are you up at last, you sloth? Honestly, how many times must I yell at you before you awaken?"

He blinked a few times, and then flicked on the bedside lamp on his desk to reveal the small, dark-haired Reaper girl sitting on his lower body, her feet folded under her calves in the _seiza _position—the picture-perfect form of formality.

"Obviously, you only needed the one time," hissed Ichigo sluggishly. "And why are you sitting on me, midget?"

"Foremost, I should ask you to not call me a…midget, whatever it means," she said in annoyance. "I am not familiar with human jargon, but I know an insult when I hear it. Secondly, I did not 'need the one time', as verbally rousing you had no effect. I attempted to shake you awake shortly afterwards, and you tried to strike me. I would have been injured had you succeeded, and in evading your strikes I came to rest in this position."

"For God's sake, you're sitting in seiza.How the hell would you have even…. OK, you know what? Don't answer that. Look, next time, just don't get close when you wake me up and you'll be fine."

"Why would you even attempt such an attack on my person?" Rukia asked him as she removed herself from him and stood on the side of his bed. "I do not recall wronging you in any fashion."

"My stupid old man likes to ambush attack me in the morning for some entirely contrived and insane reason. As it is, I have to be ready to defend myself or I have a massive headache when all is said and done."

Rukia sniffed. "Do not bother trying to justify your misanthropy and misogyny with such silly excuses. It is not becoming of a Reaper." Ignoring the spluttering and enraged protests that Ichigo began to spout immediately afterwards, she continued. "We leave now. Take the Soul Candy that Byakuya-onii-sama had you consume yesterday and swallow it again."

Rather than do what she said, Ichigo stared at her blankly.

"Byakuya…onii-sama…? Wait, that's your brother's name? It even _sounds_ snotty and annoying. Fits him…."

"That is not important right now! If you do not mind, we need to leave post haste!"

Still grumbling, Ichigo got out of bed and opened one of the drawers of his desk, where the candy lay partially wrapped in a rag. Deftly, he opened it up and swallowed it without a second thought, wincing as the odd feeling of shedding his body washed over him again. Of course, Alfred took immediate control, keeping Ichigo's body from taking a nasty fall.

"Good morning, Sir Ichigo," the replacement soul said; he gave his usual sharp salute in that manner that Ichigo really, truly could not stand at all, and asked, "Your orders?"

"Knock Dad out when he comes in at eight or nine o'clock, then go downstairs, eat breakfast, and then come back up here. Say you're studying or something if anyone asks."

"Understood, sir!"

Groaning at Alfred's sickening enthusiasm, Ichigo turned to Rukia and crossed his arms. "So where are we headed, oh mighty Soul Reaper?"

In reply, Rukia slid open the doors to his closet, exposing the round portal within and the Hell Butterflies waiting to lead them through. Unhesitating, Ichigo walked through his bed and followed her into it, leaving Alfred to shut the closet door behind them.

* * *

The room that they emerged into was candidly different from the meeting room where Yamamoto and the other captains had gathered with him yesterday; the floors were traditional _tatami _mats, but the doors on the left side were open, exposing the office to a central courtyard with well-trimmed grass and trees. The other wall had two bookcases filled with scrolls and other leather-bound tomes. In front of them, behind the short, squat desk, there was a thin man with long white hair and dark eyebrows, dressed in the Soul Reaper outfit and the white overcoat that signified Captaincy. The wall behind him bore two vertical calligraphic scrolls; one had the characters for "responsibility", the other the characters for "courage."

"Rukia-kun, good morning," he said, smiling warmly and raising his brows as his eyes closed to match the greeting. "I trust you're well."

"Quite," Rukia said.

The man then focused on Ichigo and stood up in a fluid motion, allowing Ichigo to see the sword at his belt, and bowed ever so slightly. "And you are Kurosaki-kun, I assume? My name's Juushirou Ukitake. I am Captain of the Thirteenth Division. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Ichigo nodded. "It's nice to meet you too."

Rukia smacked the back of his head, causing him to duck slightly in bewilderment, pain, and irritation. "Fool! Have you no respect? You are speaking to a captain—act like it! Bow at least! You humans have no manners, I swear!"

Ukitake smiled and waved off the matter. "Rukia-kun, relax. It's all right. He meant no disrespect. Now, before we begin, Kurosaki-kun, let me give you an abbreviated idea of your schedule based on the discussion the captains had last night. You'll be learning the basics of Soul Society functions from Rukia-kun and me; I'll handle rules and regulations, she'll take care of basic swordsmanship and spiritual power use. Once you've advanced sufficiently, Captain Kenpachi Zaraki and the Eleventh Division will further refine your blade techniques, while Captain Soifon and the Second Division will educate you in the use of Hakuda,our barehanded combat style, and Flash Steps. We have no one specifically assigned to teach you about your Kidoutraining just yet, but we'll get to that later."

"Sounds good to me. So where do we start?"

"With the basic of basics. Please, both of you sit. Rukia-kun, bear with this, please, it's a necessary part of this whole process."

Rukia shook her head as she sat down; again, she chose seiza as opposed to any number of much more comfortable positions, making Ichigo wonder, as he followed suit but chose to sit cross-legged instead, just how used she was to sitting that way. "I will be fine, Captain. Do not worry about me."

"Very well, then. We'll begin with the layout of Soul Society. Right now, Kurosaki-kun, we are within the Seireitei, the Court of Pure Souls. This is the exclusive domain of the Soul Reapers' organization, the Gotei 13, and our main base of operations. Outside of this area are the 320 districts of the Rukongai, where souls purified by Soul Burial reside —there are 80 districts within each part of Rukongai, that is to say the north, south, east, and west parts, and generally speaking, the smaller the district's number, the more affluent and secure it is…."

* * *

Approximately three hours later, Ichigo and Rukia left Ukitake's office via the entrance to the garden, having received an extensive explanation of all the average Reaper's duties; Ichigo's face was noticeably blank, however, as he'd been more or less swamped by all of the information he'd received and was still processing most of it.

"This is like the first day of school," he moaned. "You come in and learn a bunch of boring stuff about procedure that you almost never need to use again. Such a drag!"

"It lasted only three hours," Rukia said with a disdainful glance up at him. "And Captain Ukitake barely touched on the most important points. Surely you cannot have such little stamina that you are incapable of listening to and understanding an explanation that straightforward?"

"Hey, I'm ranked pretty high in my class standings, you know. I'm hardly an idiot by any definition of the word."

"So you say."

At this point, they'd finally come out to the entrance of the Thirteenth Division, stepping down from the wooden porch that the main building was built on, as most traditional Japanese buildings were. Now they stood in the courtyard that served as the Thirteenth's training and exercise grounds, where pairs of Reapers were sparring with each other using their actual blades.

"I hope to God we aren't doing _that,_" the strawberry-blonde boy muttered, thinking of the oversized katana-cleaver on his back that he had wielded on the night Rukia had given her his powers. "I barely know how to use this thing—my training was in karate, not kendo."

In a moment, another Reaper appeared behind him, holding two bamboo practice swords; ignoring Ichigo's squawk of surprise, the Reaper gave the swords to Rukia and bowed shortly before disappearing again.

"Then you will learn," Rukia said simply, tossing him one of the practice swords. "Come, stand over here. I will explain to you the fundamental building blocks of swordsmanship."

Ichigo did as she told him to, only stopping to unbuckle his large blade so that he could move properly.

"Good. Now, you place your left hand on the base of the hilt, and your right just under the tsuba_…_there." She easily slid his right hand up to just under the round, rubber cross-guard, and Ichigo found himself surprised at how her petite hands had such uncharacteristic strength. "Twist your hands inward just a bit…."

Having seen at least a few samurai movies, it didn't take much for Ichigo to get the rest of the general items down, including the positioning of his feet, and with some degree of effort on Rukia's part, the coordination of his shoulders and elbows. From there, they practiced basic swings, and then switched to simple sparring—thirty-second matches in which Rukia completely proved that her skill in fighting far outstripped his, her height be damned.

"You use your range well, Kurosaki-san," she said, smoothly blocking one of his clumsier strikes and then making a light touch on his unguarded left side, "but you must be careful. If you do not pay attention to how you commit yourself to your strikes, you will leave yourself open."

Huffing from exertion, Ichigo nevertheless managed a nod, and then returned to his ready stance.

"Once more, and then we halt to train your spiritual energy control. Be wary."

They stood, facing each other grimly, and then Rukia advanced again, her shinai whistling through the air. This time, Ichigo sidestepped, and remembering her words, went for a short strike to the wrist, though their lack of protective equipment required him to make a light tap instead of actually striking hard.

He missed, though barely, and Rukia nodded as if to concede the point to him before she lashed out with her own blow, again striking him in the side…or at least, she would have, had he not quickly stepped back, out of her range. He then returned when her blade could not touch him, gently touching her on the head with the tip of the shinai. Dust swirled around them from the ground, kicked up by their quick and sharp movements, but neither combatant noticed.

"Pretty close," he said. "But you did tell me to pay attention to how I committed myself, right?"

Rukia looked upwards at the weapon now touching her skull, before giving Ichigo and a nod. "I did. And you did. Well done."

With that, he removed the shinaifrom her head, and followed her suit, bowing to her as she bowed to him before bending onto his left knee and putting the practice weapon down.

Once that was done, Rukia reached inside of her robes and withdrew a crystal ball, slightly milky white but otherwise near transparent. She placed it into Ichigo's hands and her smile became slightly sharper.

"Now comes the difficult part. You will have to learn how to control and direct your spiritual power, which in turn will lead to your use of Kidou_._ It will take sometime before you can bind others as I bound you on the night we met, but we will get to that in time."

Ichigo remembered with a grimace how his arms had been bound to his back by the odd incantation Rukia had unleashed on him, but said nothing else. "All right, I'll take your word for it. So what do I need to do?"

Rukia's face became stern enough to resemble Byakuya's for just a moment, briefly startling Ichigo; what had he said to merit that?

"Remember that feeling—the feeling that gave you the strength to break out of my spell. Remember it and focus wholly on it, and then try to focus that power into this sphere."

Still puzzled at her sudden sobriety, he nevertheless nodded and did as she asked, closing his eyes to block out the sounds of the others practicing around them and searching his memory of that day's events.

The best he could recall was a sort of desperation, a driving _need_ to be free of the bonds around him and be free immediately, but something told him that that wasn't the feeling he needed right now, and so he brushed it aside. Instead, he took a deep breath from his nose, and tried to focus his willpower; not fear, not worry, just his fortitude.

Then, as he struggled to reach something he knew that he could feel yet not touch, a spark of something lit in him. Rukia gasped, and he understood immediately that he'd reached what he needed to find, and held on to it, gripping the sphere in his hands to try and focus on it as Rukia had told him to.

Only two seconds later, though, she told him, "That is enough." Confused, he did as he was told, and opened his eyes; to his astonishment, the crystal ball had become a solid black color.

"What the hell is this?"

Rukia took the ball from him and examined it cautiously, and then tapped it with one finger before setting it down on the ground. "It seems that you were able to tap your power, and in doing so flooded the sphere with your spiritual energy. It will need some time to discharge it. I was not expecting you to have such…density in your soul. Perhaps…."

Ichigo looked down at the slowly clearing sphere, then back up at Rukia, scowling in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean? Is something wrong?"

"This will just make the matter of your sword even more troublesome," she said. "If your spiritual power is so vast, then actually taming it enough to create a properly sealed zanpakutou will be difficult unless you work hard at it."

Suddenly, Ichigo was reminded of his dream from that morning, and his scowl lessened somewhat. "…I kind of don't understand."

Rukia sighed, and then, from nowhere, produced a sketchpad and a marker; Ichigo was reminded of the night that they'd met, yet again. Unfortunately, now his stomach was sinking as he remembered the abominably horrid rabbit drawings she'd used to explain the very basics of the way the Living World and Soul Society were connected, as well as the nature of Hollows.

"It seems my assumption of your low stamina was in fact entirely founded. Very well, let us try to refresh your memory of the lecture that Captain Ukitake gave not even an hour ago."

She drew a rabbit dressed in a Reaper's robes, holding a sword, though one would have needed to squint to make out the arm from the blade and the clothes from the body. "Now, every Soul Reaper has a zanpakutou, but not every zanpakutou has been…shall we say, awakened to its true power. Graduates from the Soul Reaper Academy are given the asauchi, a nameless zanpakutou that is effectively a regular blade. When the latent power of that Reaper is released, the asauchi is infused with the power of the Reaper's soul, and becomes a proper zanpakutou—at which point the name of the blade is also given to the Reaper by the spirit of the sword itself."

Not noticing the start Ichigo made at mention of 'names', she took a red marker and drew a spiky aura around the crude drawing, particularly the blade; it took all of Ichigo's willpower to not make a face at how much uglier the drawing became as a result.

"It is also a foolish idea to walk around with the power of the blade constantly released, and so usually, it is kept sealed—though this only happens if, at the time of the initial formation of the zanpakutou, the Reaper has enough control over their spiritual energy. Otherwise, the blade's power is constantly released, which in turn makes it much harder to manage one's energy. The act of releasing that seal in battle is called shikai, the initial release."

She flipped to another page before drawing, in right to left order, the same rabbit with a regular zanpakutou, the characters for "first" and "release" to represent the word shikai, and then the rabbit again, with the red aura fully around him.

"You will most likely not begin to experience any of the signs that you are ready for shikai for some time yet," she finished. "However, before then, you must control your spiritual energy or you may make a zanpakutou that is no more worthy than the mockery of a blade you carry now."

The thinly veiled insult to Ichigo's weapon caught his attention, and he instinctively looked over his left shoulder, catching sight of the two blue tassels that hung from the end of the pommel. "What's wrong with it? It's a pretty big sword and it swings pretty well—and it's a hell of a lot nicer-looking than your artwork."

Without missing a beat, Rukia smacked his forehead with her shinai and kept on speaking as if he hadn't said a word. "But it has no spiritual density. Or rather, it has such a small amount that it could be easily broken without any effort, at least by any half-decent Soul Reaper. I was not aware of it until I focused my much recovered perception upon it, but…it is so. Most likely because you either used some part of the power I gave you or simply not enough of your own. Either way, it is not yet of importance—"

"Actually, I've got a confession to make that might change your tune on that," Ichigo said, rubbing the spot that Rukia had hit so casually. "Last night, I had a weird dream where this middle-aged dude in black started talking to me about how he was my zanpakutou's spirit, and how I had to take my power up and throw away yours. Is that one of those 'signs' of shikai you were talking about?"

Rukia blinked several times before rubbing her face with the palm of her hand.

"It is. Which means that we need to see Captain Ukitake again, post-haste. Come."

She scooped up the orb, which was now clear, and led the way back to the captain's office.

* * *

Ironically enough, Ukitake was wishing, precisely at that moment, that someone would come and interrupt the travesty that was unfolding before his eyes between the two Reapers that were in his office in the moment. They had come, as was their job as joint third seats of the Thirteenth Division, to deliver papers and reports of the day, but as usual, they had fallen unto insulting each other when they had tried to deliver the same piece of news at the same time. Now the report he was writing, or at least preparing to write, regarding Ichigo's first day of progress, was being delayed for the sake of waiting for the argument to end so that he could move on to more important matters.

Sentarou Kotsubaki, the taller of the two, frowned down at his partner, Kiyone Kotetsu, his dark-eyed glare clearly meant to intimidate her but patently failing to do so, as always.

"Don't interrupt me like that, Kiyone," he rumbled, black eyebrows bunching under the white rope he wore as a headband. "That's rude and absolutely unforgivable."

In response, Kiyone poked him in the shoulder with a white-gloved index finger, ruffling one of the two white frills he wore over his robes. "I was speaking first, you big lummox! Who are you to tell me not to be rude when you started it?"

Ukitake moaned quietly and fought the urge to slam his head into the desk as best he could, knowing that either of the two would mistake it for one of his frequent dizzy spells and cause even more of a fuss.

_Sometimes it is so easy to believe that this world is actively seeking to torture me. It truly is._

At that moment, Ichigo and Rukia came in through the office doors, accidentally pushing through the arguing pair of Reapers without a second thought. Overjoyed, Ukitake mentally turned his head to the sky and smiled, his heart singing praises to whatever gods did exist out there.

…_and, sometimes I forget that into every life a little rain must fall. It is only natural, after all._

Kiyone and Sentarou both looked a bit put out by the sudden interruption, but fell silent as they recognized who had interrupted them—at least one of the people who had, anyway.

"_Who's the carrot-top?" _Kiyone asked Sentarou in a whisper, fidgeting with the collar of the white, buttoned-up shirt she wore under her outer black robes. _"I've never seen him around before."_

"_That's the new human deputy,"_ Sentarou replied. _"Rukia-san gave him some of her powers to help him kill a Hollow, and then the Central 46 basically made him a deputy Reaper so that he could get himself under control."_ He smirked to himself and added, _"I'm surprised. The Seireitei's number-one gossip didn't know about any of this? It only happened yesterday, after all. And there were Hell Butterflies all over the place telling us about it."_

Kiyone's face flushed in embarrassment and anger. _"Shut up, Sentarou."_

"Excuse me, Sentarou-kun, Kiyone-kun," Ukitake said with a gentle smile. "I need to speak with Rukia-kun and Kurosaki-kun for a moment. Do you mind?"

Immediately, the two caught the hint and excused themselves, drawing the doors shut behind them. Of course, they stayed just outside to eavesdrop, just not in front of the door where their profiles could easily be seen; knowing this, Ukitake raised his voice slightly and added, "Farther away, please. Both of you?" When he heard their footsteps move much farther down the hallways, he focused his attention on Rukia and Ichigo. "How has training been going?"

"Well, sir," Rukia said. "Kurosaki-san is quite proficient at swordsmanship, or at least he will be once the Eleventh Division gets his hands on him. However, his spiritual energy…is worth a modicum of concern. He made the training orb completely dark within two seconds, and he has already encountered his zanpakutou spirit. He cannot hear its name, but considering what he did to the orb, it is only a matter of time—I would hope a few months, but it is difficult to say."

Ukitake studied their faces, noting that Ichigo's normal scowl was just a bemused frown of sorts, perhaps a little worried. "I see. Well, Kurosaki-kun, I must give my honest congratulations. You have taken a first step that many Reapers find themselves waiting a long time to reach…but we've got our work cut out to prepare you." He adjusted himself where he sat before he continued. "Rukia-kun. Continue the Kidou preparation training, as well as the swordsmanship lessons. Your focus should stay on control, however, considering Kurosaki-kun's condition."

"Yes, sir."

"Kurosaki-kun, do you have any important matters to take care of today? It seems as if your training will be quite exhaustive, and I don't want to inconvenience you."

Ichigo frowned briefly, but eventually shook his head. "No, I should be free for a while. Still...I don't know if that artificial soul candy thing can keep me out of trouble if he's left alone for too long, so I should probably go home by noon, or twelve-thirty at the latest."

Ukitake cupped his chin in his fist as if considering something, and then nodded. "That is fine. Actually, it may work out for the best to do things that way—Rukia-kun will be able to start her duty early and still have time to take you out on patrol with her."

"Anything else aside from that, then?" Ichigo asked. "We should get back to work if we want to leave on time."

"No, nothing in particular," Ukitake said, brushing back a strand of hair that had fallen in front of his face. "You're dismissed."

Rukia bowed, and sharply elbowed Ichigo to make him do the same. "Then, if you will excuse us, Captain."

With that, they departed, and Ukitake picked up his brush and dipping it into the ink well before continuing to write his report. In short order, Kiyone and Sentarou returned to the room, but before they spoke, he held up a hand to cut them off, still looking down and writing his report.

"Kiyone will speak. Sentarou, you get to deliver the report tomorrow."

The girl beamed and prepared to launch into her explanation with gleeful fervor, while Sentarou's lips and eyebrow twitched.

"And when you are done, all three of us will need to discuss your decision to eavesdrop on that conversation just now after I explicitly asked you not to."

Kiyone's face paled.

* * *

Back in the courtyard, Ichigo and Rukia went right back to training, starting with swordsmanship yet again. This time, however, she had other officers in the Division spar with him, rotating in and out as necessary; to everyone's astonishment, while Ichigo lost most, if not all, of the matches, he still displayed a natural sense of handling himself and his weapon—at one point, he'd blocked every blow thrown his way and would have won his match had he been able to swing fast enough to beat out his opponent's last strike.

That little display ensured that at least a few people kept their eyes on Ichigo when his training switched over to controlling his spiritual energy again. Rukia didn't allow him to close his eyes, stating that he "needed to see the flow himself" so that he could control it better. It had been difficult to tap into the power again this way, especially with so many watching him, and even when he did the sphere continued to grow much darker than it was supposed to, causing him no end of headaches as Rukia gave him strong verbal scoldings over it.

In the end, they used the last few minutes they had to take up one more sparring match before they left for Karakura Town; the Reapers present on the practice field all stopped to watch, remaining silent as Ichigo and Rukia circled each other in a bid to create a good striking position.

Then, Rukia stepped in first, and her shinaimet his near-instantly as he blocked the body strike, pushed her shinai aside, and went for a touch on the head; he would have gotten it, had Rukia not taken a step to the side before she poked him in the ribs with the shinai_._

Ichigo groaned and lowered his shinai, and then stepped back to readjust himself into his stance. From there, the exercise of circling and striking continued, barely getting past the stage of Ichigo blocking two strikes from Rukia's weapon before getting tagged without much effort.

Eventually, at five minutes to 12:30, they stopped, panting and sweating, and put the practice swords into the hands of the weapon stewards. Ichigo picked up his large blade and buckled it back on, still surprised that a weapon with its size was so light for him.

"Would you prefer to go to your home for a time and join me on my patrol in a few hours, or would you rather go out right away with me?" Rukia asked, her arms folded.

"I'd prefer home, thank you," Ichigo said. "I just want to be sure that Alfred guy didn't mess up anything in my room, and I want a home-cooked lunch."

"He did not do so the last time you left him at your home, did he? Then I cannot see why you are worrying about it now."

"I guess so…but my point about the lunch still stands."

Rukia sighed and walked off towards the main building. "Come, this way. We will requisition Hell Butterflies and ask for transportation from an upper Division member."

"What, you can't open those portal things yourself? Some Reaper you are—Ow! Why'd you punch me?"

"Fool! I am an unseated officer, I do not have the privilege nor the training to do that properly yet!"

"As old as you are, you're still a grunt? That's a shame!"

"Kurosaki-san, do not test my patience!"

* * *

**12:30 PM**

**Karakura** **Town, Minamikawase: Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

Alfred-Ichigo hummed a small ditty to himself as he sat on Ichigo's bed, hands under his head as he sat with his eyes closed, reflecting over the events of the morning so that he could report them accurately to Ichigo.

"_Gooooooood morning, Ichi—GAAAAAAAAAAAAK!"_

"_Be quiet already!" Alfred-Ichigo snapped as he grabbed Isshin Kurosaki's foot, putting just the right amount of venom into Ichigo's voice to mimic the young man perfectly as he slung the maniac father into the floor of his bedroom. "Do you know what time it is?"_

"_Time for morning reflex tests, obviously," Isshin gasped out, his stubble-filled chin pressed quite firmly into the ground as Alfred-Ichigo stepped on his back with slightly more force than necessary. "You pass, son. Good job."_

"_Thanks," Alfred-Ichigo mumbled. "Is Yuzu awake?"_

"_She's making breakfast as we speak. But why are you worried about that? You haven't even finished fighting with me yet!"_

_Rolling his eyes, Alfred-Ichigo picked Isshin up by the scruff of his pink V-neck T-shirt and tossed him casually out of the window, internally thanking Ichigo for having such a surprising amount of strength in his young body._

"_Mistress Yuzu's lunch was quite delicious, actually," Alfred-Ichigo said to himself, his voice briefly slipping out of Ichigo's brash attitude. "I look forward to breakfast."_

* * *

"_Oh, hello, Daddy," Yuzu said as Isshin stumbled back through the front door, brushing bits of dirt and gravel out of his straight-standing black hair. "Come on, sit down. The sausages are almost ready."_

"_Where's Ichigo?" he asked dramatically, clenching his fist in rage. "That ungrateful spawn of a boy threw me out of a second-story window! He was trying to kill me!"_

"_Not like you don't try to do the same to him whenever you wake up," remarked Karin dryly, running a tired, absent hand through her short dark hair; its color was the perfect contrast to Yuzu's, who shared her color with Ichigo's. "Where is he anyway?"_

"_Just went to the bathroom to brush my teeth is all," Alfred-Ichigo said as he came from upstairs, scratching the sleeve of his white T-shirt; the number 15 was printed on the front in simple block letters. "What's for breakfast?"_

"_I decided to try going Western today," Yuzu said, walking out of the kitchen with a tray in her small hands. "We've got sausages and eggs, and curry bread. Do you want tea?"_

"_I'm OK, thanks," Alfred-Ichigo said. Then he looked over at Isshin and grinned, putting a hand into his blue jeans pocket. "Hey, old man. Looks like you had a nice flight."_

_Isshin frowned with comedic darkness, but the moment was totally ruined when he ran, sobbing, to the wall where large poster of a woman with long, strawberry-blonde tresses that were the perfect match of Ichigo and Yuzu's hair color._

"_My dear, dear Masaki," he wailed. "Your son is such a hateful, ungrateful man. Why, why, why did he turn out this way? Am I truly such a failure as a father? Am I?"_

"_Yes," Karin answered from the table. "You're melodramatic, childish, and reckless on a 24-hour basis, and you're so embarrassing that Ichigo doesn't want to get a girlfriend because then she'd have to meet you, and she'd dump him on the spot after that."_

_Alfred-Ichigo snorted as he sat at the table. "Not true, Karin."_

"_Is so, you said so yourself."_

_The Soul Candy inwardly paled; now Karin was referencing something the real Ichigo had said, and for all of the millions of rules that the strawberry-blonde teen had laid out for him, and despite his memorization and strict adherence to practically all of them, covering slip-ups like this wasn't part of the deal._

_**What would Sir Ichigo do?**_

"_Obviously I wasn't serious," he said with a scoff. "Really, Karin."_

_The dark-haired girl looked unconvinced, but let the matter drop as Yuzu brought the western-style platter of food to the table for the family to eat. Shortly afterwards, Isshin tried to take a bit of sausage from Alfred-Ichigo, and in response, the Soul Candy hurled the older man into the nearest wall, where he proceeded to fall into a stupor for the rest of breakfast time._

* * *

The Soul Candy's reverie was interrupted by the return of Ichigo and Rukia through the closet door; immediately, Alfred-Ichigo stood up to salute them both, but was stopped when Ichigo grabbed his badge and pressed it to his body's forehead, ejecting the Candy post-haste, before slipping back into his fleshy shell.

"Feels weird getting back in here," he muttered. "OK, Kuchiki, here's the deal. I'm going to go down and get lunch just to make sure everything's all right, then I'm gonna rest up for a bit and shake off this training stuff."

He took a moment to look at his desk, where the Soul Phone he'd been given sat beside the badge.

"Are you gonna call me on that Soul Phone thing when you're ready to patrol?"

"I will," she said. "But I will need to come and retrieve you personally, as you most likely cannot sense spiritual auras by yourself yet, which would confound any attempts for us to meet up outside of your home. In the meantime, read the manual that came with that Soul Phone and begin to become acquainted with its use. You will find a much greater need to understand its functions once we go out on patrol. I will return to the Soul Society and continue to work on your lesson plans."

The Hell Butterflies that had led them through the Senkaimon fluttered their wings, as if impatiently signaling Rukia to get a move on; with the shortest of nods to Ichigo, Rukia departed through the portal in the closet. Shortly afterwards, Ichigo got out of bed and went to go brush his teeth again before going down to meet the others for lunch.

* * *

**4:30 PM**

Unlike the Western breakfast, Yuzu had chosen to fall back on traditional homeland food for lunch, leaving Ichigo to munch on a rice ball or two in his room while he put in some time studying both his history book and his Soul Phone pamphlet.

Of course, coming back up with food in the first place had required him to…resolve a disagreement with his father, which had left Isshin in a steaming knot of pain once he and Ichigo were done flinging and tossing each other around.

After all, in the Kurosaki household, Yuzu's rice balls were like a gift from heaven. Managing to take one away from the table required nothing less than an all-out brawl.

At any rate, Ichigo was quite satisfied as he finished off the two rice balls, switched from covering the Hollow-tracking functions of the phone to the way Hollow bounties were credited to his name, and started to cover the actual historical importance of the Shinsengumi.

Or at least, he would have done the last two had he not yawned quite loudly and decided to take a nap; without really thinking, he crawled onto his bed and passed out within seconds.

He wasn't awoken until he felt something wet rubbing on his face, confused, he jerked upwards, and Rukia squawked as the sudden motion sent her over the foot of his bed.

Seeing a marker fly out of her hand, Ichigo touched his face and saw streaks of black marker on his fingertips.

"What'd you do that for?" he growled. "Do I look like your damn drawing pad to you?"

"Consider it your punishment for falling asleep when you knew you had duties to attend to, and failing to answer your phone," Rukia said, somehow managing to keep her dignified tone despite her growing irritation she felt from being thrown to the floor and the egg-shaped lump that might have been growing under her hair. "Now take up your badge and the Soul Candy. We have a Hollow to hunt."

* * *

Moments later, Ichigo found himself hopping from rooftop to rooftop alongside Rukia without even thinking about it, at least not too much. He'd noticed that his bodiless spirit was much more athletic in general than his normal self, but he hadn't been expecting to make jumps like the ones he'd been making.

Right now, he was busy trying to pretend that he was following the Hollow that they were tracking via their phones; if he hadn't fallen asleep while studying, he'd realized for the tenth time since they'd departed, he wouldn't have needed to act like he knew what he was doing when he hadn't the foggiest idea.

Of course, since Rukia was already too busy focusing on what she was doing, she didn't notice any of this at all.

"The Hollow should be dead ahead, on the street below us," she murmured, coming to a stop on a light post. "Do you see it, Kurosaki-san?"

Ichigo bounced to the ground from the next roof and moved ahead of her just a bit. Exhaling, he put his phone into his pocket and drew his sword with a grunt. "No. I'll scout ahead for it."

The Hollow's howl cut the air, practically shaking their bones from the inside out, and Ichigo grinned as he dashed towards the source of the noise, ignoring Rukia's cries for him to stop.

As it turned out, the Hollow was just around the corner, and Ichigo's noisy arrival and spiritual energy drew its attention to him immediately, just as Rukia came along behind Ichigo. To Rukia's relief, the size of the creature had given Ichigo pause; it was vaguely ape-like in shape and form, with reddish fur on its back and gray skin. The ghastly mask on its face was what freaked him out the most, though—it vaguely resembled a bird's beak, with two tusks jutting out from below its jaw, and when it opened its mouth, he saw teeth…lots and lots and lots of teeth.

"You fool," she said. "I told you to wait. Now we've lost the element of surprise."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever!" he snapped, gripping his sword even more tightly. "Can we kill the stupid Hollow already, please?"

"_You _will be killing it, Kurosaki-san."

"What?"

"You are the trainee! You must kill the Hollow!"

The creature in question let out another moan and began to shamble over to them.

"Dammit! Don't screw around! Are you seriously expecting me to kill this thing?"

"Yes, you fool! Stop your complaining and do it already!"

A giant, clawed paw hovered over them, and the pair of Reapers took a moment to look over at the Hollow before its giant hand crashed down on them.

Or rather, the spot where they'd been standing.

Rukia, now standing atop a nearby lamppost, sighed in irritation, schooling her face into a scowl similar to Byakuya's to hide the fact that her heart was pounding from nearly being crushed underfoot—or underhand, as it were. Had she not reacted as quickly as she did, they would have been finished.

Less than a foot away from the Hollow's rising hand, Ichigo was half-sprawled out on the ground.

"Holy crap," he gasped. "What was that?"

"I used Flash Steps to move us both out of the way," Rukia said, dropping from the lamppost as she drew her blade. "I dropped you first and then retreated to the light-giving device there."

The Hollow grumbled, recalling both Ichigo and Rukia's attentions to it; without further ado, Ichigo got to his feet and held his blade out in preparation.

"All right, screw it. Stand back. If you want me to take this guy so badly, I'll do it."

Rukia nodded once, keeping her blade unsheathed but not raising it. "Then do so. Destroy its mask, and you shall purify it."

With another roar, the Hollow lunged at Ichigo, apparently attracted to his spiritual energy over Rukia's. For a split second, Ichigo felt his heart stop, but soon instinct took over his fear, and he leapt upwards; once the Hollow came close enough, Ichigo swung his sword down with both hands, cleaving the mask right down the middle with the single stroke.

"A telling blow," Rukia said, nodding as the Hollow dissolved into white particles. "Good job."

The sniffles and sobs of a childlike voice stopped Ichigo from responding to that remark; he looked further down the empty street to see that there was a pair of dark-haired children, huddled together and hugging each other. Presumably, they were the Hollow's first targets prior to Ichigo and Rukia's arrival on the scene; Rukia walked over to them, and Ichigo, suddenly realizing what was going to come next, hurried to catch up with her.

The children, a boy and a girl, shrank away at the sight of the swords, squealing in fear. The chains connected to their chests, once linked to the ground, were cut midway up. Rukia quickly sheathed her sword and crouched down to the level of the children, frowning with concern.

"Who are you?" the girl asked fearfully, clutching the boy closely to her. "What was that monster that cut these chains on our chests?"

"I am sorry, but I have little time to explain that," Rukia said, sheathing her sword. "What I can say is this; the monster wished to consume you whole. Because of what it has done to those chains on your chests, you are in danger. Do you not feel a pain just above your heart?"

The children nodded mutely, rubbing the plates on their chests where the remnant of their chains was connected.

"Then we must act. Kurosaki-san, prepare yourself. We need to perform Soul Burial on these two now."

Ichigo remembered the night that Rukia first made contact with him; she'd performed Soul Burial on the spirit of a businessman that had been bothering him for part of the day, simply by tapping him on the forehead with the end of her _zanpakutou's _hilt. "What do I need to do?"

"Focus your power on the hilt of your blade, and then do as I did to the ghost in your home. Quickly, we have no time to waste."

After taking a deep breath, Ichigo did as she told him, doing his best to reproduce the energy-orb exercise from earlier. To his delight, the end of his hilt lit up precisely as it was supposed to, while Rukia did the same with significantly less conscious effort. Immediately, they moved in sync, pressing the ends of their hilts to the heads of the children at the same time; though the young ones were shocked at first, their expressions lightened as they slowly began to fade, signaling an end to their pain.

"Kenta, my chest feels lighter," the girl said to the boy, rubbing the remains of the chain.

"So does mine, Miki."

Before they faded out of the mortal plane in a flash of white light, they turned to Ichigo and Rukia and bowed.

"Thank you for helping us," they said together, smiling broadly. "Thank you so much."

Rukia smiled gently, and returned her _zanpakutou_ to her belt. "Be well."

Ichigo watched all of this with a slightly less fierce version of his normal scowl, but it wasn't until they were gone entirely that his expression became even softer, fading into a pensive frown.

"…How long were those kids here, I wonder?"

Rukia turned away from where the children had been standing. "I know not. But I hope this has impressed something important on you, Kurosaki-san—this is your duty as a Reaper. You will be facing Hollows that could be menacing people you do not know. If you choose to ignore their pain because of that unfamiliarity between them and you, then you will never be able to call yourself a true Reaper."

Unbidden, Ichigo's memories of Soifon's words to him from yesterday floated back into his mind.

* * *

_Soifon made a dismissive humming noise and turned away from him. "Do not singularly devote yourself to only your family as your protectorate. There are others that you must be aware of, others that deserve your protection as much as they do. Your job as a Soul Reaper will be to render that duty to all beings of the Living World. Accept that now or your 'service' will be both miserable and half-hearted."_

* * *

"Yeah, I've heard that before," he muttered. "And I get it, all right? I'm not a heartless bastard, you know." He looked down at his hands, realizing that they were still shaking just a bit from the tension he'd felt when he'd faced the Hollow. "I…I owe a debt, and I intend to repay it properly."

Rukia regarded him coolly with her violet eyes, and not for the first time Ichigo noted a similarity to her brother. However, the similarity ended when she smiled softly at him, and turned to look up the street.

"Come. You have to patrol alongside me for at least an hour more."

With that, she began to stride up the sidewalk, and Ichigo followed behind her, withdrawing his phone from a pocket on the interior of his black robe.

"And, by the by, please stop acting as if you know how to utilize the Soul Phone's tracking functions. I am well aware that you have no idea how to use them."

Against his will, Ichigo flushed as red as his hair.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Another day, another chapter._

_The official plan so far as an update schedule is at least two chapters a month. I've charted out the first arc of the story, and I'll be having a heck of a time romping through the events. Do note that I may, at different times, write different chapters of this story in advance as a buffer. That does include these notes, which is part of the reason why I won't be acknowledging every review in this section._

_That said, I'll see about getting Chapters 3 and 4 out in January 2011, but will probably start writing them from now._

_That's all this time. See you next class._

_~Zero-Sennin_


	3. Lesson 3: Hollow Hunting 101

_Substitute_ _School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 3: Hollow Hunting 101, or Skip Studies to Cut Masks_

* * *

**Monday, May 18th, 12:30 PM**

**Karakura** **Town, Gakuenchou: Karakura High School, Class 1-3**

When Ichigo went to sleep on Sunday night, he was bone-tired from hunting Hollows with Rukia; as it turned out, a number of other Hollow emergences had cropped up infrequently throughout the night, and eventually, Rukia retracted her promise to only make him patrol for an hour and kept her with him for the rest of the evening, necessitating that Alfred eat dinner in Ichigo's body and pummel Isshin in Ichigo's stead until Ichigo returned at nearly midnight, bone-tired and entirely frazzled from nearly getting squashed, gored, and otherwise maimed by the three Hollows he and Rukia had fought that night.

Though his sleep was dreamless, that made it no easier for him to wake up for school the next day, especially since he slept through his alarm and had to rely on his father's 'tardiness punishment attack' to wake up. One hastily toasted piece of bread between the lips and a lot of frantic pedaling on his bike later, Ichigo managed to stumble blindly into class, punch out his overly enthusiastic brunet friend Keigo Asano before the start of lessons, and slump into his seat, mumbling something barely recognizable as words around the piece of toast in his mouth when his teacher Ms. Ochi called his name for attendance.

After half-sleeping his way though morning classes, Ichigo was dragged to the rooftop for lunch with his school buddies; by the time he awoke, he was slung over the massive shoulder of his tall, half-Mexican friend, Yasutora 'Chad' Sado.

"Ugh. The hell's going on?" he grumbled, rubbing his head tiredly until he realized where he was. "Huh? Chad? What's wrong? Why'd you pick me up?"

Chad merely set Ichigo down on the ground and handed him his backpack.

"The girls will be along shortly," Chad said in a low, rumbling bass, his eyes covered by his shaggy brown hair. "They told me to pick you up and take you here until then, since you slept through most of morning lessons and passed out right afterwards."

Ichigo suddenly remembered Ms. Ochi's annoyed glare and the way she'd hit him with her book repeatedly to wake him up; the hunt last night really had taken a hell of a lot out of him, and it showed.

With a sigh, he rummaged through his backpack before paling noticeably and letting off a particularly nasty swear.

"I left without lunch! Dammit!"

"Lucky that I packed extra, then," observed a girl's confident voice from behind him; Ichigo looked over his shoulder to see that the speaker was his old karate partner and classmate, Tatsuki Arisawa, walking up to him with an easy grin on her face, her wild black hair untroubled by the slight gust of wind that picked up shortly after her arrival. Behind her, her friend and another of Ichigo's classmates, Orihime Inoue, smiled shyly at him, brushing her own long hair, which matched Ichigo's in color, behind her ear, barely touching blue, flower-shaped hairpins.

"Huh. So, what; you're a psychic now? Knew I was going to leave behind my food today and come late to class on top of that?"

"No, I just feel like being nice," Tatsuki said, giving Ichigo a playful punch in the shoulder. "Just keep your mouth shut and be grateful, hm?"

Ichigo closed his eyes and turned up his scowl, scratching his head as nonchalantly as possible. "Fine, whatever you say. What'd you bring anyway?"

"Okonomiyaki, all hand-made by my mom."

"And I made miso soup, Kurosaki-kun, if you'd like to try it," Orihime added, twiddling her fingers. "I added cayenne pepper, macademia nuts, and bananas for extra taste!"

Ichigo managed to keep a grimace from spreading across his face, but was interrupted when he heard a set of all-too familiar pounding footsteps racing towards him. Orihime squeaked in surprise as one Keigo Asano leapt over her head, his mouth twisted into a wide grin.

"Hey, Ichigo~~~! ACK!"

His flying tackle towards Ichigo was interrupted when the strawberry-blonde boy stood up and casually knocked him down by pounding the top of his head, followed by Tatsuki kicking him in the ribs.

"Idiot! Don't be so careless, jumping over Orihime like that!" Tatsuki snapped. "What if you'd hurt her, jackass!"

As Keigo squeaked out a barely-intelligible apology, dark-haired Mizuiro Kojima, another one of Ichigo's friends, came up the stairwell, followed by red-headed Chizuru Honshou. Instantly, Chizuru attached herself to Orihime and began to purr like a cat, smiling happily and closing her eyes as she began to reach for Orihime's…sizable…chest.

"_Hello, my Hime,"_ she breathed, but her little bid for 'playtime' was interrupted when Tatsuki took the liberty of smacking her aside with an elbow strike, sending her red-rimmed triangle-glasses flying through the air…while continuing to stomp on poor Keigo.

"Hands off, you pervert!" Tatsuki roared at a cowering Chizuru, eyes practically afire. "Wasn't this morning enough for you?"

"Tatsuki-san is quite the multi-tasker," Mizuiro observed idly as he sat down, getting his boxed lunch out of his backpack. "Not bad at all."

Ichigo shrugged and sighed in disinterest, idly looking off into the sky overlooking the city…and then did a double take, his eyes narrowing, as Rukia nonchalantly hopped over the railing on the edge of the roof and walked over to him.

"Good day, Kurosaki-san," she said. "You seem rather tired. I apologize; I did not expect so many Hollows to be out in force last night."

He somehow managed to pull himself together and whispered as discreetly as possible, _"Can you not see that my friends are here? What do you want? Better yet, how did you find me?"_

"I will explain that at some other point. Obviously, since this is a poor time to talk, I shall return later. When should I return?"

"_Three hours from now. Now go! I want to eat in peace."_

Rukia sniffed and crossed her arms, but instead of listening to Ichigo, she jumped again, landing on Chad's shoulders with ease; Ichigo nearly lost the fight to avoid staring at her perched on the giant's shoulder.

"Actually, I believe that this is an opportune chance to observe you. Act normally."

Knowing that she was taking advantage of her invisibility to his friends just to annoy him, Ichigo turned his back to Rukia, his scowl darkening, and said loudly, "Hey, Tatsuki! You gonna give me some of that okonomiyaki or are you going to finish killing Keigo first?"

Tatsuki blinked, seeming to be confused by Ichigo's words, but soon enough stopped pounding Keigo with her foot and swept him off to the side. With a smile, Orihime handed Tatsuki a _bentou; _Tatsuki sat down next to Ichigo and opened the box up, displaying the okonomiyaki for all to see.

"Take your pick, Ichigo. Get too greedy, though, and I'll fling you off the roof."

"You can try," he scoffed, returning her punch from earlier with a slight grin; Tatsuki understood it as his way of saying _"Thanks"_ and simply smiled in response.

Of course, Keigo, overcome by the delicious smell of the food, rose up and pounced for it; prompting Ichigo and Tatsuki to give him a face full of foot before getting around to eating.

Rukia watched the byplay with a confused expression on her face.

_Humans show affection for each other by hitting one another a lot, it seems._

* * *

**3:30 PM**

When Ichigo and his friends finally passed through the school gates, he let off a sigh of relief; after spending all of his lunch hour watching him and purposely walking between his friends, observing them like a biologist looking over sample slides, Rukia had kept her word and gone off to wherever she needed to be, allowing Ichigo to finish his day in peace.

As the group split up to go home, Ichigo lagged behind as he saw Rukia leap from a nearby lamppost and walk up to him.

"I don't have any of my Reaper gear on me, so you'll have to wait 'till I go home to get them," Ichigo started.

Rukia looked distinctly displeased at that, but simply shook her head and sighed. "I have been given equipment to pass along to you, and I have a plan for your training during the week that should perfectly accommodate this school schedule of yours."

"OK, then you can explain it while we move."

With that, he walked off towards his bike, unchained it from the rack, and pedaled back around to where Rukia was standing. Before he could ride off, though, she took a red armband from within her robes and wrapped it around Ichigo's right bicep, under his shirt sleeve, clicking one end into the other seamlessly. Ichigo immediately felt a mild sense of heaviness overcome him, and looked over at her in confusion.

"What's this thing supposed to be?"

"It is a suppressant for your Spiritual Energy. It is as much a training device as it is a form of restraint—it is the only way we can be sure that your powers do not cause other people to become spiritually sensitive. If we were to let your power run loose without controlling it, it could cause…complications."

"OK—and this is a training aid how?"

"Learning to operate with less of your power will hopefully teach you how to restrain it. In the event that it does not have as much of an effect on your control as we would have liked, it will still keep you from causing undue trouble. It is also invisible to those that cannot see spirits, so you do not have to worry about removing it unless there is an emergency that requires you at full power."

Ichigo shrugged; it made about as much sense as anything else. "OK. What about training during the week? I've got school."

"Evening patrols and reviews of the techniques you will learn over the weekend. Once you begin your advanced instruction, lieutenants from the divisions that manage you will come here on different days of the week to tutor you as necessary."

Her Soul Phone went off suddenly, and she took it from her robes and checked it with only the slightest pause.

"There's a Hollow to the west of here," she said. "Go home. I will meet you for patrol and training in two hours. Prepare yourself accordingly—we will be practicing swordsmanship, and we must see what effect the restraining band has had on your spiritual pressure."

Ichigo sighed and nodded. "Then I'll see you later," he said, mounting his bike. "Be careful, all right?"

Rukia brushed a stray lick of hair down and adjusted her zanpakutouat her side. "Of course I will be careful. Remember—two hours."

With that, she walked down the street and disappeared in the blur of Flash Steps; Ichigo looked off in the direction she'd departed in, and then pedaled off, mentally running through calculations of how much work he could get done before he found Rukia's blade at his neck for 'slacking off'.

* * *

**5:30 PM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase: Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

The Kurosaki household was fairly quiet, as it had been the last few days; since the last big accident in town, there hadn't been much activity in the clinic, and since Isshin was out on business that evening, Ichigo was allowed to study in relative peace for once.

After re-doing a particularly troublesome math equation for the third time and finally getting the right answer, Ichigo sighed, closed his math textbook and notebook, and opened up his Soul Phone pamphlet and the 'Twelfth Division: A New Reaper's Technology Guide' handbook that had come with his badge. After a fair bit of reading earlier in the evening, between studying sessions, he'd managed to work out most of the important functions.

"'_The Hollow Interception and Tracking System assigns each Hollow a specific bounty, based on the potential threat it represents to Soul Society, its Spiritual Energy levels, and stage of evolution. All bounties are given in Kan, and the Soul Phone can be used as a credit device to make purchases at most stores. If actual coins are required, primarily in the higher-numbered and more rustic Rukongai districts, there are cash stations within Seireitei for monetary exchange," _Ichigo murmured, reading the book aloud. "So the little doohickey tracks Hollows, sets bounties, allows communication with Soul Society and other Reapers, and acts like a credit card? Sheesh, it's more advanced than my old dinosaur of a mobile, that's for sure."

Said 'little doohickey' rang suddenly, and he picked up the Phone, reading the text message Rukia sent to him.

'_I will be arriving in three minutes. Be ready to leave._

_-Rukia'_

Ichigo pulled out his planner and double-checked the assignments he'd been given, positive that he'd gotten everything done, and then grabbed the Alfred pill and his badge. In moments, the pill was falling down his throat and he was molting out of his body, storing his gear in the interior pockets of his robes.

"Alfred, I'm headed out for a while. Yuzu will call you for dinner soon; do the usual thing, all right?"

"Yes, sir," Alfred-Ichigo said, saluting with a gleaming smile. Ichigo felt his eyebrow twitching, but rather than wasting time getting upset, he opened up his window and looked outside for a moment; as he did, he finally noticed that the slight squeezing pressure of the restraining band Rukia had put on him was still on his bicep. Curiously, he looked over at it, and saw that it was, by all appearances, glowing slightly. Experimentally, he flexed a muscle, raised and lowered a hand, made a fist; nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but he had a feeling that something was different.

From the corner of his eye, he saw a black blur coming closer to his house, and he stood back from the window, knowing precisely who it was. In moments, Rukia leapt up to his windowsill and alighted daintily on the floor; she was carrying a dark duffel bag, which she dropped on the floor after climbing down from the sill.

"So you can be prompt when you want to be," she observed lightly, crossing her arms. "Very good. Now, we will begin with the Spiritual Energy exercise. I cannot show you the next skill that I have to teach you until I know you can concentrate properly."

She tossed the orb towards Ichigo, and he caught it in one hand, cupped it in both of them, and began to concentrate his power into it—and that was when he felt the difference. As compared to when he'd done the exercise before, where he'd had to fight in order to avoid flooding the sphere with his power, he found himself under considerably less stress to direct and manage his Spiritual Energy. In tandem with actually observing the sphere as he added his power to it, he was able to make it almost completely opaque without darkening it excessively.

Rukia leaned in close to observe the sphere, semi-circling Ichigo to see it from all angles, and then nodded in satisfaction. "It is not perfect, but we will practice more with it. At the very least I believe that your control is precise enough for what we will learn today."

She straightened up, raised her left foot, and then put it down…on the air.

Ichigo blinked in confusion as Rukia did the same thing with her right foot; by all appearances, she was now standing in midair as if she were standing on solid ground, and a slight glow seemed to be coming from beneath the soles of her feet, though it was barely visible at best.

"What I have done here is gather Spirit Particles beneath my feet, using them as a platform to stand upon. In places such as Soul Society, the concentration of particles is especially high—in fact, all of the buildings in Soul Society are in fact comprised of Spirit Particles, as are the bodies of Soul Reapers. That is why we are not visible to the spiritually insensitive in this form."

She walked around a bit, showing off her skill, and then stepped back towards the ground.

"My skill in this technique is enough that I do not need a great number of particles. Fortunately, Karakura Town happens to have a higher concentration of particles than most urbanized areas, so even a novice like you will have less difficulty using the technique. I would naturally prefer to have you do this in Soul Society, but circumstances do not permit that."

"Now, we have focused on internal concentration so far. For this technique, one must put their attention outwards. During this exercise, you will need to sense and pull the individual particles toward you and direct them towards your feet—this is best done with a clear mind. You may do this with your eyes closed until you master gathering the particles themselves, at which point you will need to do so."

Ichigo nodded, and then grimaced suddenly as he heard a knock on his doors, accompanied by Karin's voice.

"Hey, Ichigo, are you in there?"

"We need to go," he said quietly. "She's sensitive enough to see us and possibly hear us too." He turned towards Alfred-Ichigo. "Tell her to wait and don't let her in until we're gone."

The artificial soul nodded and said, "Just a sec, Karin!" Without further ado, Rukia put the now-clear sphere in her bag, slung the bag over her shoulder, and leapt from the window. Ichigo followed her with a slight grimace, which deepened when he landed and a slight twinge of pain passed into his knees as he bent into a landing.

Rukia noticed this, and walked over to him, frowning in concern as she put a hand on his knee. "It seems that I underestimated the degree to which your power was sealed, Kurosaki-san. I apologize—it may be a little uncomfortable for you. As a Reaper, your physical fitness is in some way tied to the amount of Spiritual Energy you possess, and since you have less of it, you are slightly more vulnerable."

Ichigo grimaced and straightened up, causing Rukia to back off and allow him to stand. "I'll keep that in mind. All right, let's get this done. Close my eyes and clear my head, right?"

With a breath, he shut his eyes and tried to chase away his thoughts as Rukia instructed. Soon, the only sense he was consciously aware of was his breathing…and something else.

_It's…like a wordless call, _he thought. _It wants me to…._

Instinctively, he reached towards it, both physically and mentally, and he was surprised when he somehow felt the presence—and others like it—pull closer towards him. Immediately assuming that he was feeling the Spirit Particles in the air, he realized that he didn't know what to do next.

"Visualize," Rukia said quietly, and though her voice was little more than a whisper amongst the 'voices' of the particles, he could hear her clearly. "Visualize a pathway that will guide them downwards."

The first thought that came to Ichigo's mind was his feet, an actual mental picture of them. As brief as it was, it seemed to be enough; he felt the particles crowd around him, almost suffocate him, before vanishing entirely. He then felt his feet rise slightly, as if he were growing taller, if just barely.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked down; to his surprise, he saw the glow around the soles of his feet. Hesitantly, he raised a foot, and felt it stop as if it had made contact with solid ground when he tried to let it drop. Grinning, he did the same with the other foot, putting them level with each other, and then began to walk around, marveling at the way he floated.

"I did it," he said, clenching a fist. "I really did it!"

Experimentally, he bent down and jumped, taking himself several feet in the air; though the rush of the wind and the blur of his surroundings made it difficult for him to precisely pinpoint his position, he instinctively stretched his feet out and found that he stopped moving.

"Impatient, I see," Rukia called from down below. "Come, we must leave; we are still too close to your home. Or do you not mind your sisters discovering that you are a Soul Reaper?"

Ichigo's smile faded as he realized that his house was just below him; discomfited, he scratched his head and sighed.

"Fine, sure. But, um…how do I get down from here?"

Rukia sighed and rubbed her forehead.

* * *

After rising up to his level and guiding him through the steps necessary to control the Spirit Particles keeping him afloat, Ichigo and Rukia headed out to a nearby vacant lot, under Ichigo's direction. Rather than walk along the streets or hop on the roofs, though, they traveled in the skies.

Though it wasn't a long walk, keeping the concentration required to maintain his underfoot support made Ichigo realize that he hadn't come close to really mastering the technique. By the time they stepped back onto solid ground, Ichigo was slightly winded but knew that the worst was yet to come.

Rukia set her bag down and opened it up, taking out the two shinai and tossing one to Ichigo. He grabbed it out of the air and took a few moments to see if he could remember what he'd learned about his stance and footwork, satisfied when this proved to be true.

"Very good, Kurosaki-san," Rukia said. "Now, come at me!"

"You first," he replied. "I'm not gonna get sucked into your pace."

Rukia simply arched an eyebrow and made a thoughtful humming noise, and then did precisely as she was asked, rushing forward and swinging her shinaiat Ichigo's ribs. He quickly blocked her, and brushed her sword off before striking out towards her head.

Unable to move in time, she simply stood still as Ichigo tapped her on the head, taking the point.

"One for me," he said with a grin. "Come on, keep up!"

"Very well, I shall," Rukia retorted, stepping back. "Come as you like!"

* * *

Half an hour later, Ichigo's grin was still plastered on his face, albeit much more sloppily. Having long since lost track of the score between himself and Rukia, he'd found himself focusing on the fight itself more than ever, and not for the first time he was impressed by how his instincts in hand-to-hand fighting were somewhat serving him well in sword combat.

Rukia, however, had shown that her first loss had been something of a fluke for Ichigo, as he'd been hard pressed to land points since then—the best he could do was a strike to the wrist or the ribs, and that was only occasionally, as Rukia had become much more evasive, her speed coming close to the level of Flash Steps from his perspective.

After using a particularly nasty strike to the ribs to knock Ichigo over, Rukia called a halt to the practice, and said, "Kurosaki-san, concentrate the particles again. We will be sparring in the air this time."

Ichigo grimaced in annoyance, but got ready to do as she asked, getting up from where he'd sprawled out on the ground; however, before he could close his eyes, Rukia held up a hand.

"Do it without closing your eyes. You have demonstrated enough control to move past that stage now. All you need to do is reach out the same way; it is fairly simple from that point on."

"I doubt that," muttered Ichigo, but rather than argue, he did as he was told, trying to 'beckon' to the particles as he had before. It took a little longer since he had no way to reliably block out the other stimuli, but when he finally recaptured the sensation, he actually saw the particles themselves for the first time; they were blue spheres, seemingly appearing out of the air and flowing downwards to his feet. Moments after that, he was stepping up into the sky; about seven feet above ground, Rukia jumped up and stood across from him, preparing her stance.

"Well, I guess I spoke too soon," he admitted. "But the only question is whether or not I've got enough focus to keep this up and fight you at the same…."

His voice trailed off as he saw Rukia rushing him, and immediately, he raised his blade above his head to block her overhead strike.

"H-hey! What's the big idea?"

"You waste your time on chatter," she said, letting off a dignified huff of annoyance. "Do you wish to be out here all night, Kurosaki-san? Perhaps you enjoy being worked down to a tired, miserable wreck after all."

Ichigo replied with a huff of his own and pushed her back, then charged in, attacking rapid-fire with controlled overhead strikes. Though Rukia was forced to block most of them, she still kept up her evasive tactics; in contrast, Ichigo found himself struggling with his footing, occasionally allowing one foot to sink lower than the other. In turn, he was often left open, often getting hit in the back or the leg.

This continued for another half-hour, much to Ichigo's growing frustration; though he did manage to get a good idea of how to improve as the session came to a close, Rukia noticed this and simply picked up the pace, pushing him to the limit.

What stopped them was not Rukia's decision, but the synchronized beep of their Soul Phones. Immediately, they stopped mid-rush and dropped their shinai to the ground, reaching into their robes for their phones.

_A Hollow will attack at the following coordinates within the next ten minutes._

A series of numbers came up shortly afterwards, which was then replaced by a large map of Karakura. A red dot marked the location of the Hollow, which was in the southwestern part of Karakura, close to where the Onose River bordered the next town. In contrast, a skull similar to the one on Ichigo's badge marked their location; to Ichigo's consternation, the red dot was moving to the northeast…towards his home.

"Dammit, we've got to move!" he yelled. "That bastard's heading for my place!"

Rukia leapt down to the ground and packed up the shinai. "You go on ahead. I will be burdened down by this equipment."

"What the hell are you bothering with that stuff for? My family's in danger again, dammit! Leave it behind and come on!"

Rukia glared up at him, and her sharp frown forced him to eat the rest of his words.

"Have you no faith in your own strength?" she asked him, her voice cold as her brother's. "Do you believe that you are so weak? Or are you afraid?"

"I…."

"This equipment may not be visible to regular humans, but I am also responsible for it, in the same way that I am responsible for you. Beyond that, once this Hollow is exterminated, we will be patrolling other areas for Hollows, and we will most likely not come back this way tonight. Now, follow my orders and go ahead of me. I will join you shortly."

The finality in her voice left no room for argument, and he rushed off towards the Hollow while Rukia packed the bag.

* * *

His desperation fueling his speed, Ichigo found that he'd made it back to his place in one-third the time it'd taken him and Rukia to get to the parking lot; to his surprise, Rukia appeared only a few roofs behind him, and he alighted on his own to let her catch up, looking around for the Hollow, and was right beside him with a burst of Flash Steps, the bag slung over her shoulder.

"Why have you stopped?"

"You're my backup. I'm not about to go charging into this blind. Not after what happened yesterday with that bird-masked one." He pointed down, towards his room. "Drop the bag in there and let's go. If it stays at my place then you don't have to lug it around between here and the Soul Society."

Rukia opened her mouth to protest, but Ichigo quashed that by pushing his hand onto the back of her head, forcing her shoulders to hunch up. "Don't argue with me! Just do it!"

Scoffing, she shrugged him off, but nevertheless did as he'd said, stepping down to his window and throwing the bag inside the room, next to Ichigo's bed. Ignoring Alfred-Ichigo's salute and greeting of "Hello, Mistress Rukia!" she looked up towards Ichigo with a frown on her face.

"Are you satisfied now?"

He nodded and jerked his head towards the direction the Hollow was coming from. "Yes. Now quit jabbering and let's get this show on the road!"

Rukia's frown deepened at his use of the unusual term, but she didn't bother asking about it, moving off towards the Hollow; Ichigo followed silently.

Thanks to their blind determination to reach the Hollow before it reached the Kurosaki Clinic, Ichigo and Rukia managed to get the drop on it, overlooking it from a nearby roof. It was easily described as a giant lizard, with its Hollow hole in the middle of its back. Its mask resembled some gross caricature of a chameleon's face, complete with swollen white spheres with dark holes for eyes and a sharp horn on the tip of its nose. As it looked around, its tongue lolled out of its mouth, and steam literally rose up from it, causing Rukia to frown.

_Could its tongue have an acid of some sorts, or act as a heat weapon?_

Rather than dwell on that, she focused her attention on Ichigo, fixing him with another stern stare. "Now, Kurosaki-san…. You did a good job yesterday, cutting the bird-masked Hollow as you did. You must do so again to be successful. When dealing with Hollows, attacking from behind is the best way to minimize damage."

"But a sneak attack is kind of dirty, isn't it?" Ichigo asked. "I mean, with the bird-ape guy, I was counter-attacking, you know? It wasn't anything like this—this is an outright ambush."

"And as I said, it is the most appropriate method for dealing with Hollows. If you recall, I lost such an advantage against the Hollow that attacked your home, Fishbone D, and as a result we both nearly died."

Ichigo scowled as the bloody memory flashed through his mind, but gave no comment on it. "OK, fine, we do it your way then."

Silently, he drew his zanpakutou_, _stood up, and bent his knees, waiting as the Hollow came closer to their position without noticing them; when it stopped moving, it was almost directly beneath them, and Ichigo took that opportunity to jump down, gripping his blade with both hands.

With a grunt, the Hollow looked upwards at Ichigo's rapidly growing shadow, and lashed its tongue out at him. Ichigo simply swung his blade down, splitting the tongue before it could touch him, but was unpleasantly surprised when the split organ actually turned inwards and stabbed into his back, spreading a burning agony through his spine.

Rukia growled and kicked off of the roof, drawing her zanpakutou and tightening her right hand's grip around the reddish-brown weaving of the handle. With two sharp strokes, one downwards, one upwards, she cut the pieces of tongue away, leaving parts embedded in Ichigo's back; she then grabbed the back of Ichigo's robes in her left hand and pulled him to the ground with her, slowing their fall by concentrating Spirit Particles around them.

While the Hollow thrashed about, shrieking and gibbering at the loss of its tongue, Rukia turned Ichigo over and used her bare hands to pry the remnants of tongue out of Ichigo's back, wincing as her hands burned from the contact. Noting that Ichigo was having trouble breathing, she reached down to the band around his arm and pulled the interlocked ends apart; immediately, her senses were filled with the rapid rise of Ichigo's Spiritual Energy, and in a moment he was standing up.

"Thanks."

"Stay back. At best I have only temporarily aided you. I must heal your wounds myself when I get the chance."

Her own hands burned, reminding her that she hadn't gotten away unscathed either; ignoring the pain, she held her sword in front of her, blade pointed upwards, and turned it in a counter-clockwise circle, murmuring, "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki_._"

As the tip of the blade gradually came to point towards the ground, the blade and hilt turned completely white, and a white ribbon emerged from the end of the hilt. The sword's guard changed from a rectangle with inward-curved corners into a circle with a snowflake inscribed within, with hollow areas amongst the branches of the snowflake. Immediately, a rush of cold air pushed out from around her, somewhat soothing the burning pain in Ichigo's back as it rushed over him. Ichigo, however, didn't notice this at all, as he was more awed by the transformation of Rukia's blade.

_Is this that 'shikai' thing she was talking about?_

Unaware of Ichigo's amazement, Rukia continued to hold the tip of Sode no Shirayuki towards the ground as the blade glowed white; as the Hollow lumbered forward and shot its tongue out, she used a quick step to evade to the side, and slashed her blade horizontally.

"First Dance, Tsukishiro!"

Immediately, a white circle formed beneath the Hollow, its diameter matched the length of its body. In short order, a pillar of light rose up from the circle, forming into a cylinder of ice that rose straight up into the sky and solidified, freezing the Hollow in place. Before long, the pillar shattered from the top down, and from there, the frozen chunks of the Hollow flaked away into white particles.

With a sigh, Rukia slashed her blade down, and then sheathed her blade, the ribbon dissolving and the hilt returning to normal as she did so. After that, she took a deep breath, gathering power around her hands. Ichigo watched, fascinated as the green light shrouding Rukia's hands knitted together the scorched flesh, and grinned when she applied it to his back and healed his own wounds, leaving only the ripped parts of his robes.

"At the very least, my meager talent in first aid has not dwindled," she said with a dry chuckle. "Do you feel all right?"

"Better than I did just a minute ago. Thanks." He rubbed one of his injured spots and let out a large sigh. "All right. So that was a _shikai, _huh? It's amazing."

"Oh, you mean Sode no Shirayuki," Rukia said. "Yes, that is what can be done with a _shikai, _but the effect is unique to the Soul Reaper." She adjusted the blade at her side just slightly, and looked up at the setting sun. "We have time before patrol. We will spar one more time."

"In midair?"

"In midair."

"Dammit!"

* * *

**Tuesday, May 19th, 9:30 AM**

**Karakura Town, Gakuenchou: sKarakura** **High School, Class 1-3**

As Ichigo walked into class on Tuesday morning, he sighed, rubbing the bags under his eyes with an annoyed grunt and his usual scowl. Luckily for him, he had been spared the trouble of hunting and killing any more Hollows. Unluckily, Rukia had taken it upon herself to beat him half to death in training (her rationale being 'You should have anticipated the possibility of the Hollow's attack, but instead you left yourself wide open. You fool.'), and had he not turned up his alarm to maximum, he would've slept right through it again.

"Hey, Ichigo—OW MY FACE!"

"Hey, Keigo," Ichigo replied, pulling his fist out of Keigo's aforementioned face. "Keep it down, huh? I had a rough night last night."

"Sorry," Keigo groaned in reply, already falling into sweet oblivion as he sank to the ground; satisfied that Keigo wasn't contributing to his headache anymore, Ichigo took his seat and leaned back, shrugging his backpack off and put it under the desk.

Mizuiro came over to Ichigo's desk and motioned his head towards where Keigo lay insensate.

"You seem awfully grouchy, Ichigo," the black-haired boy observed. "Your father caused you some trouble again, I take it?"

"No, just a lot of study and practice," Ichigo said, rubbing his head. "Wore me out."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Finals coming up and everything, you have to get ready." He stood up and looked down at Keigo again. "Don't worry. I'll try to keep the idiot out of your hair today if you need me to."

"That would be nice, thanks."

The clatter of the door opening made them both look over to it; Tatsuki and Orihime came through the door, and Ichigo immediately noticed two things—the bandages around her left arm, and the dark mark on her left leg.

"Inoue," he said suddenly. "What the hell happened to you?"

Orihime looked up at Ichigo and blushed, quickly waving a hand. "Oh, it's nothing, it's nothing! I got hit by a car yesterday on my way home with the groceries."

Ichigo and Mizuiro stared in dumbfounded silence at her seeming lack of concern over the matter, particularly her open-mouthed smile.

"What the hell, are you serious?" spluttered Ichigo. "Look, I know you're a bit accident prone, but...you got hit by a car and you're just walking around? How the hell did that happen? Why aren't you at the hospital?"

"That's what I asked her," Tatsuki muttered, shaking her head in annoyance. "But she insisted, insisted, insisted that she'd gone there already and that they'd said she was fine." Here, she began to mimic Orihime's voice, saying, "'I just spaced out for a second. But I'm fine, I'm fine!'"

"Because I _did_ go there already, Tatsuki-chan," Orihime said, sounding as if she were scolding a child. "And I'm able to walk around, so I am fine! It's that simple!"

From nowhere, Chizuru wrapped herself around Orihime, causing Orihime to squeak in surprise. However, tears were in the young redhead's eyes, and her grasp was gentle, not lecherous.

"Hime, you can't be so careless," Chizuru sobbed. "But don't you worry; I'll take sweet, sweet care of—"

Tatsuki growled venomously, grabbed Chizuru by the face, and slung her into a wall, yelling, "Will you _cut it out,_ you slinky pervert?"

By pure coincidence, Chizuru hit the wall right next to the door as Ms. Ochi came inside, looking over to where the poor girl was slowly sliding down the wall. The young, brown-haired teacher sighed and adjusted her glasses, and closed the door behind her before she picked up Chizuru.

"All right, you rabble-rousers," Ms. Ochi said, raising her voice as she slung Chizuru into the appropriate seat. "Settle down, it's time for class!"

Ichigo sighed and reached for pencil and paper, but froze when he heard Rukia's voice remark, almost idly, "That girl is no mere klutz."

As Ms. Ochi called attendance, the petite Soul Reaper came up from behind him, observing Orihime sitting down and crossing her arms as she did so.

"I know you are wondering why I am here," she said, looking around idly. "One reason was to see if you brought along your Reaper equipment as I told you to."

"_I did,"_ Ichigo grated in a harsh whisper, secretly thankful that no one was paying attention to him as they made their way to their seats.

Rukia picked up the badge tied to one of the straps of Ichigo's bag and nodded in approval. "I can see that much. You remembered that only the spiritually sensitive can see this, I take it? Very good."

The class representative, Ryou Kunieda, stood up, her long black hair falling straight down, and said firmly, "Stand!"

Everyone, Ichigo included, got up out of their seats, though it took all of Ichigo's willpower to avoid unleashing the full force of his frustration on Rukia.

"Bow!"

The students bowed, and Rukia continued, "Another reason for my presence is simple observation of your daily school life. Your…lunchtime interactions were quite interesting, and I wish to see more."

"Sit!"

Everyone returned to their seats, and Ms. Ochi began to take attendance.

"Truthfully, that would have been enough, but it would now seem that I have a third reason to be here. That girl...Inoue, you called her? She was wounded by a Hollow."

Though Ichigo's only response was to widen his eyes, any modicum less of self-control would have caused him to knock over his desk and promptly freak out.

"If you focus your senses on her, even in your human body, you will undoubtedly feel the Spiritual Energy emanating from it." Her eyes narrowed. "There was an alert last night after I left you behind, but it disappeared quite quickly; we are the only two Reapers in this area, so I know now that the Hollow was not purified—at the moment, though, I thought it was a false alarm due to the brevity of the appearance, and did not follow up on it. Had I thought otherwise, I would have gone to investigate; my apologies."

Ichigo's scowl deepened. He'd turned his phone off after Rukia had left, given that she was doing the patrolling for both of them at that point. It was a good thing she'd chosen not to ask him if he'd picked up the alert as well, or he'd be in trouble.

"We will have an extra-long patrol tonight, I am afraid. Again, forgive me."

Ichigo spared a glance over to Orihime, who blinked, then smiled easily at his attention.

But he saw the bandages, and the mark, and had to fight to smile in return.

* * *

**3:45 PM**

As soon as Ichigo got to the bike rack, he slung himself onto his bike and took off for home; to his distinct lack of surprise, Rukia was close behind him, leaping from roof to roof behind him. Once he got home, he tied up his bike and rushed inside.

"Hey, Ichi-nii, welcome home," Yuzu called. "Hey, where are you going in such a hurry?"

"I've got lots of studying to do!"

"Sure you're not going upstairs to call a girl?" Karin said with a grin, looking up from her work at the table.

"That's not funny, Karin!"

Isshin came charging down the stairs as Ichigo went charging up. "Welcome home, my boy! Give Daddy a hug-oh-ho-ho-ow!"

Rather than let his father's surprise attack slow him down, Ichigo grabbed Isshin by the face, smashed him into the wall, and kept on running.

"GET OUTTA MY WAY, YOU OLD COOT!"

As soon as he got to his room, he closed the door and touched the badge to his heart, causing him to molt out of h is body once more. His body fell backwards onto the bed, so it made no noise; shortly after that, he popped the Soul Candy into his body's mouth, bringing Alfred to life within it.

"You know the deal," Ichigo said sternly. "I'll be back when I'm back."

Alfred-Ichigo saluted, and Ichigo finally lost his temper and whacked the Soul Candy upside the head. "Cut that out, dammit," he ground out, "and do your job. Got it?"

Sensing Ichigo's agitation, Alfred-Ichigo nodded, and without further ado, Ichigo hopped out of his window, feeling the particles gather around him and slow him down. Once he landed, Rukia came up to his side and pulled out her Soul Phone.

"Nothing yet," she said, frowning at the screen. "Besides that, if it only appears for the briefest of moments before disappearing again, then it is no use at all to track it via the phone."

Ichigo pounded a fist into his hand and let off a deep, dark growl. "Son of a…dammit, let's just go to Inoue's place and stake 'im out, the bastard! It's the best way!"

"That may be so, but that may cause a problem based on Inoue's position and whatever other Hollows may be here." She frowned in contemplation. "Perhaps I should call for support from Soul Society, just for tonight."

"Maybe—"

The alert on their phones rang loud and clear, and without pause they pulled them out and read the latest alert.

_A Hollow will emerge at the following coordinates in ten seconds._

The dots and skull appeared on their screens almost immediately, and they studied the Karakura map intently.

The red dot was on top of the skull.

Before either one of them could react to that, a large Hollow phased through the wall of his house, coming out just below Ichigo's room. It had a man's upper body, with red-skinned shoulders, while the rest of its body, including its snakelike lower body, was pure white, with a flame-like pattern running down its back, and black, shoulder-length hair streamed out from behind his vaguely skeletal white mask. Its Hollow hole was placed right where his heart had been, and was fairly large.

Without pausing, it rushed at them with all speed, stretching a claw out to cut and crush them down.

Rukia drew Sode no Shirayuki, grimacing. "Well…"

"…shit," Ichigo finished, drawing his blade as well and moving to intercept.

The Hollow grunted as Ichigo's sword cut into its palm, preventing it from crushing them where they stood. Quickly, Rukia reached up and pulled off the red armband, causing his energy to spike. With renewed vigor, he pushed the Hollow back, gripped his blade, and swept upwards, cutting a chunk out of its mask.

"Too shallow, damn!" he growled to himself. His expression quickly paled, though, when the Hollow finished recoiling from the blow and leaned forward again.

He saw a dark eye that he'd seen somewhere before….

* * *

**Kurosaki Residence, 3 years ago**

"_Please, help! Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me?"_

_The doorbell rang yet again, and Ichigo quickly ran to open the door, inwardly wondering why it was that something like this had to happen when he was due to leave for school._

_What he saw immediately banished that thought from his mind._

_A girl, around his age, with short hair the same color as his, had someone slumped over her back._

_But what caught his attention was the blood on her clothes from carrying him…_

…_And his dark, dead eyes. Those eyes had once been brown, mirthful, but now they were fading fast._

"_This is the clinic, right? Please. Please. You have to help him."_

"_Ichigo! Who's that at the door?" Isshin called._

_Ichigo swallowed the lump in his throat and turned around, yelling, "Dad! Dad! A girl's at the door with someone that got hurt really, really badly! Come quick!"_

_He had just enough panic in his voice to convince his father to rush out from the kitchen to see what was going on—when Isshin saw the young man slumped over the girl's shoulder, his small eyes narrowed in that dangerous way that they did when he had a severely wounded patient on his hands._

"_Oh, crap," Isshin muttered, lifting up the injured man. "All right, girlie. Come on inside, let's do this. What's your name?"_

"_I'm…I'm Orihime. Orihime… Inoue. And this, this is…"_

* * *

"…Sora Inoue…Inoue's older brother," Ichigo whispered, before yelling, "Kuchiki, I know this guy! He died in an accident three years ago!"

"Quite wonderful, though I fail to see how that is relevant to purifying him," Rukia said as brandished Sode no Shirayuki, and prepared to release it. But it was no good; the Hollow dashed off and dove into the ground, vanishing from view.

Shaking her head, Rukia sheathed her blade and pulled out her Soul Phone, attempting to track the Hollow; Ichigo shoved his blade into the ground and groaned, remembering part of the lesson Ukitake had taught him on Saturday.

* * *

_"Hollows, for the most part, are made from Wholes, normal human spirits like the ones you have most likely seen before," Ukitake said, setting down the cup of tea he'd just taken a sip of. "The hole in the Hollow's body represents their missing heart, the part of them that they lost when they fell into despair over their inability to achieve the goals that they felt they had to reach, whether that goal was protecting someone or getting revenge for something. Now, the Chain of Fate is important because—"_

_Ichigo stood up, his brows practically fused together and his eyes narrowing to hard slits. "So you're telling me that I've been killing innocent ghosts with this sword? Are you serious?"_

_Rukia kicked Ichigo in the back of the leg, forcing him to fall back into a rough sitting position, and snapped, "Calm down, Kurosaki-san, you are disrespecting Captain Ukitake. _Zanpakutou_, and all Soul Reaper-related skills and equipment, are meant to purify Hollows, and send their souls to Soul Society. Think of cutting a Hollow's mask as a more…combative form of Soul Burial."_

_Ukitake nodded. "Rukia-kun is correct. Now, as I was saying, Kurosaki-kun, the Chain of Fate is important because of whom, what, or where it is attached to while it is still intact. In the cases of Wholes with particularly strong emotions or grudges towards a person, or sometimes a place, the Chain is attached to the object of their obsession. Should a Plus obsessed with a specific person become a Hollow, the very person or persons they were so attached to may be the first thing to suffer their wrath."_

* * *

Remembering the pain on Orihime's face when she begged him to help her brother all of those years ago, Ichigo looked to the southeast, where Orihime's apartment was.

"If that Hollow was Inoue's brother…and if he really cared for her that much, then…."

Rukia's brow furrowed as she continued to gaze at the Soul Phone's screen, watching the red dot appear and disappear at regular intervals, moving to its next target.

"Yes. The Hollow's next target…is likely to be her."

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_And so the saga continues…._

_First things first…. I made some corrections to the last two chapters, mostly some minor continuity and grammar issues—I did a lot of last-minute edits without double checking, and it shows. By the time you read this for, or after, New Year's, the changes would've been set in stone already, so no biggie on that._

_Also, I'll be adding cultural notes and translations for some things that not everyone might be familiar with. This doesn't count honorifics, since there are more than enough lists of those on the Internet. If a Japanese-sounding word is italicized, it'll most likely be here, unless it's a Bleach-specific term; for this chapter only, I'll include words mentioned in Chapters 1 and 2 in addition to those in this one—future 'Cultural Notes and Translations' will be chapter-specific._

_I've got a confession to make—by reading up on the Bleach timeline some more, it seems that I've forgotten that Ichigo has school six days of the week. Luckily I didn't write myself into the corner in the first chapter, huh?_

_That's all this time out. See you next class._

_~Zero-Sennin_

* * *

_Cultural Notes and Translations (partially garnered from Wikipedia):_

_Kendo—'the way of the sword'; a martial art that teaches swordplay based on traditional Japanese sword techniques._

_Seiza—a formal sitting position, in which the legs are folded under the thighs and the bottom rests on the feet. The feet are also crossed over each other in a rather specific fashion. It's not a comfortable position to sit in, hence Ichigo's confusion as to why she seemingly prefers it (and in the case of the bedroom scene, how she managed to do it without him noticing)._

Shinai_—a bamboo practice sword used in kendo._

_Tsuba—a disc that serves as the guard for a _shinai_. This is also used to refer to the guard of actual katana._

_Ryou and the "Stand, Bow, Sit!" routine—this is a general thing in Japanese classrooms; before the start of class, the class representative leads the class in this ritual, the formal name of which I do not recall at this particular moment._

_Bentou (also called obentou)—a traditional boxed lunch._


	4. Lesson 4: Post Burial Cleanup 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Chapter 4: Post-Burial Cleanup 101, or The Travails of the Inoue Family  
_

* * *

**Tuesday, May 19****th****, 4:05 PM**

**Karakura Town, Orihime Inoue's Apartment**

As Ichigo and Rukia began their mad dash to reach Orihime before her brother could get his claws on her, the young girl in question was entertaining some welcome company—more specifically, her bosom buddy Tatsuki.

The girls had come to make a habit out of hanging out with each other after school, in part because Orihime's tendency to space out had Tatsuki worrying herself half to death, and in part because Orihime's…family problems left her alone in her apartment all of the time, if she wasn't going out anywhere else. Thanks in part to their pre-existing friendship, it didn't take much to make the visits a ritual between them, and soon, Orihime found that her apartment wasn't so lonesome anymore.

Right now, Orihime was in the middle of discussing their number one subject, a subject of more interest to Orihime than recipes she'd invented in her spare time, sports games that she'd come up with to play with Tatsuki, and the funny things that one could do with a penny, a rubber band, and dental floss.

Ichigo Kurosaki.

"I can't believe that Kurosaki-kun would be so concerned about me that he would personally ask about how I was doing!" Orihime said. Her voice and movements were bursting with cheerfulness as she rapidly chopped up leeks, carrots, tomatoes, and potatoes for the stew that she was making. "He really is a nice guy underneath that scowl. I always knew it, but a little affirmation is always nice, right, Tatsuki-chan?"

"True enough," Tatsuki replied with a nod. She was leaning on the sink's counter, watching Orihime carefully; she knew that her bubbly friend would, at any moment, start to add the more…interesting…ingredients to the meal she was making, and wished, not for the first time, that she had been able to talk Orihime into getting Chinese food instead of going to all the trouble of cooking something for them.

_Especially since she'll be the only one that can actually _eat _it, _Tatsuki thought, trying not to let her displeasure show. _Oh, Orihime, Orihime…._

"But when he smiled at me later on…he seemed really tense about something…maybe a little worried, too."

Though her tone had faltered, Orihime's rapid pace had not, though she'd stopped chopping and was now going into her shelves for more ingredients—specifically, hot sauce, chocolate syrup, and vanilla; she sighed, and began to add things to the pot. "I hope he feels better tomorrow."

Tatsuki scratched her head; the Ichigo she'd known once upon a time was prone to worrying a lot, but he hadn't been that way since…his mother's accident, she figured. "Knowing Ichigo, he'll find some way to deal with it. Though if you want to try and figure out what's gotten under his skin, then I think you should try asking, at least."

Orihime stopped adding a few dashes of syrup to the stew to look at Tatsuki, and then smiled, regaining her normal composure.

"Thanks, Tatsuki-chan."

* * *

**4:05 PM**

**Karakura Town**

"Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit," Ichigo growled underneath his breath, focusing on the skyline as they made their way towards Orihime's building. "Of all the people…it had to be Inoue's brother."

Rukia continued to look down at her phone every few seconds; since Ichigo wasn't in the mood to bother looking at his, she was acting as navigator, especially since he hadn't been to Orihime's place very often before, if at all. "You say she lives by herself. That, at the very least, will make any potential cleanup easier."

"I also said that Tatsuki hangs out with her after school most days." He fell into thought for a moment before he smashed the bottom of his fist into his palm. "In fact, they left together today! Dammit, so Tatsuki's there, too!"

Rukia frowned.

"Then we have quite a situation indeed," she said. "Kurosaki-san, prepare yourself."

* * *

**4:10 PM**

As Orihime and Tatsuki sat in front of the TV with their food (and Tatsuki desperately tried to keep the stew she'd already consumed in her stomach), a red hand with sharp fingertips brushed the large pot that Orihime had all but destroyed in the process of making lunch-dinner, knocking off the lid with a loud clang.

Both Orihime and Tatsuki blinked at the sudden disturbance, and as the black-haired teenager looked over the couch to see what was happening, Orihime was already on her way into the kitchen to take care of the problem.

As soon as she stood in the frame of the kitchen doorway, Orihime could see the pot lid on the floor and quickly skipped over to it.

"Odd," Orihime said to herself, picking it up and examining it. "What knocked this off?"

While she mused over that, warmth flooded through her shoulder, and she saw some red liquid splash onto the inside of the lid. Confused, she looked closer at it, and realized that the source of the liquid was in fact her arm…

…Her arm, which was now bleeding profusely from a cut that truly had no reason to be bleeding.

With a low cry that might have been the start of a scream, Orihime Inoue collapsed, dropping the lid to the ground yet again, as the Hollow that had once been Sora Inoue pulled his hand out of his sister's shoulder.

In a flash, Tatsuki rushed into the kitchen, brows knit in worry; when she saw Orihime lying insensately on the ground, and the blood pooling, staining the girl's white T-shirt and jeans, Tatsuki's eyes widened in panic, then fear and confusion.

"Orihime, talk to me," Tatsuki said, her voice cracking as she approached her fallen friend. "Orihime? Come on…what's wrong?"

The Hollow looked up at Tatsuki, recognizing dimly that she couldn't see it, and felt a sudden, instinctual flash of hatred.

_Orihime is __**my**__ Orihime _

_You stay away from her_

It slammed a hand down onto Tatsuki, and continued to press, ignoring the girl's screams of pain as it cracked, and broke, one of her ribs.

_This pressure…what is this…?_

Gasping weakly, Tatsuki felt her eyes roll up into the back of her head, and then everything went black.

Orihime didn't quite know what to make of it all.

One minute, she'd been falling to the ground, or so she remembered—the next minute, she was sitting on the ground as if nothing had happened, and a heavy chain was attached to her chest, just above her heart.

That chain was attached…to her body, which was lying insensately on the ground in a pool of her blood.

Even more startling was the strange man-snake creature in her kitchen that was pressing Tatsuki to the ground and hurting her; even as Tatsuki yelled and screamed in agony, Orihime, trembling and frantic, tried to reach Tatsuki and the monster, but was stopped by the dull ache coming from the place where the chain was attached. With both anger and desperation driving her, she began to pull at the chain, attempting to get it off and get to Tatsuki.

"Tatsuki-chan! Tatsuki-chan, just hold on, I promise I'll save you!"

As Tatsuki's screams began to grow, Orihime stopped pulling on the chain and focused her attention on the monster. With a cry, the girl charged across the room and plowed into the monster's leg; while it slithered forward, distracted, she leaned over Tatsuki and tried to grab her best friend.

Her hands phased right through Tatsuki's body.

"…What? What's this? Why can't I…touch Tatsuki-chan? Tatsuki-chan…!"

"**It's no use, Orihime. She can't hear you, can't see you…or me."**

The monster's booming male voice caused Orihime to look up in confusion, and in that moment, the monster grabbed her and her body, one in each hand, and tossed them both into the larger living room. With a cry of pain, Orihime landed roughly on her shoulder, and felt the chain tug so tightly at her chest that she thought it had been ripped out.

The monster then slithered through the doorway, his shoulders passing through the walls around the frame as if they weren't there.

"**Now, Orihime, it's just you and me. We can sit and talk for just a little bit…before I eat you whole."**

"How do you know my name?" Orihime whimpered, scooting back to the wall where her TV sat. "Who are you?"

The monster cocked its skeletally-masked head, leaving some of its hair to continue obscuring the left side of his face.

"**You truly have forgotten me…Orihime. You should be ashamed!"**

It pulled its hand back to do…something, but whatever was going to happen didn't, as a certain boy with a strawberry-blonde mop of hair, dressed in black robes, passed through the wall above Orihime and lashed out with his blade, chopping off the Hollow's right ring finger and pinky.

Orihime blinked. "Kurosaki…kun?"

The Hollow recoiled, clutching its wounded hand, as its tail lashed around violently and blood spurted from his severed fingers, hitting the walls. With a grunted curse, Ichigo landed on the floor, hefted his bloodstained sword, and yelled, "Hey, ugly, over here! You wanna get to Inoue, you're gonna have to kill me first!"

Shortly after this little proclamation, Rukia passed through the wall as well, walking over to where Ichigo stood with his _zanpakutou_ at the ready.

"Kurosaki-kun, it is you!" Orihime said with a relieved smile. "But what are you doing here? And in those clothes…?" She then spared a glance towards Rukia, absently noting how small the black-haired Reaper seemed to be in comparison to Ichigo. "Who's that little girl with you?"

Ichigo grunted, trying to ignore his rising heart rate, as he looked back at Orihime; he could see that the Chain of Fate was attached to her chest, and by following it, he could see that the other end was firmly anchored to her body.

_But is she dead…?_

Rukia easily saw the concern knitting his brow, and put a hand on Ichigo's shoulder. "She is fine. So long as the Chain stays whole, she will stay that way. But we must dispatch this Hollow, and do it quickly. Am I understood?"

"I know, I know," grumbled Ichigo, still focused on the Hollow; it had stopped its wild movements, and was now watching him carefully, still clutching its wounded hand. "Just because I know who he is doesn't mean I'm going to take it easy on him."

The solemnity on his face convinced Rukia that nothing more needed to be said, and without further ado, she drew Sode no Shirayuki.

"I cannot release my sword so long as we are within this space, but I should not need to provided that we coordinate our movements properly. Pay close attention to what I tell you, and we will win."

"U-Um, Kurosaki-kun…," Orihime said hesitantly. "Tatsuki's been hurt. She's still…in the kitchen. She's unconscious, but not…like this." She gestured to her body and her Chain. "Please, help her too. I heard something like ribs cracking…."

Rukia frowned. "Then I shall take care of her. Kurosaki-san! The Hollow is yours."

Ichigo shifted his _zanpakutou_ as the Hollow growled lowly; suddenly, its tail twitched, and Rukia flash-stepped past the monster while it hurled its tail at Ichigo. Yelling, the Deputy Reaper swung his blade down to lop it off, but was unpleasantly surprised when his blade hit the black part of the tail—where rock-hard scales prevented the edge from cutting.

_Dammit! _

Though he put all of his power into it, he couldn't manage to push the tail back, and he was sent flying, opening up a fairly nasty Ichigo-sized hole through the wall.

Orihime gasped and cried out, "Kurosaki-kun!" but before she could do anything else, the Hollow grabbed her again and held her up to its face in its injured hand; even with three fingers, it was still more than strong enough to pin her to its palm.

"**Can you truly not recognize me…Orihime?"**

"I don't know you!" Orihime shouted at it. "I don't know you at all!"

The Hollow sighed and used its other hand to brush the hair away from above its left eye, and Orihime's heart leapt up into her throat and stayed there.

"Big brother…Sora…."

Sora smiled, or at least his eyes and voice indicated it; his mouth stayed exactly the same as it was, frozen in expression by the mask.** "So **_**now **_**you remember me. Little sister…you're so cruel. To think, you would forget the one that gave all solely for you. To think, that you would forget the one that loved and cared for you so much, even when our parents, the whore and the devilish bastard, didn't."**

Orihime shook her head as her breathing became steadily more nervous and ragged. "Brother…I, I never forgot about you! Every day I think about you, brother. So why…why would you say something like that? Why would you attack Kurosaki-kun and Tatsuki-chan?"

"**Because, Orihime, all you ever did…all you ever did, once you met those two…was tell me about them! Them! Them! Them! Every day…!"**

Orihime looked over to the door that led to her room; within that place, on top of her bedside table, she had set up a tablet in memory of her brother. As he said, once she had gotten into Karakura High School, she'd taken time out to tell him about her day, every day, usually after Tatsuki was gone for the day.

_But before then…before then, I used to pray for Sora's soul everyday. Is it because I stopped doing that…that my brother thinks I've forgotten him…?_

"Brother, I had a reason for doing that," she said. "Please, listen to me. I never once forgot about you! Never once! But…I didn't want you to—"

"**I don't care about your reasons, Orihime," **Sora growled. **"You do not understand what your neglect has done to me. Even when the results are staring you right in the face…you do not understand at all!"**

Orihime's eyes began to water. "Are you trying to say that I did this to you?"

"**I'm not trying to say it! I AM saying it. Orihime…when you prayed for me, you reminded me that you loved me, and I was happy. But then, you forgot about me. You made me so lonely…by talking about other people, all the time, and never about just us. And when that loneliness became just too much for me to bear…this is what I became. Now…the only way I can be free of my pain is to bring you into my world. I will eat you, Orihime, and we will be together forever!" **

He opened his mouth, baring his teeth, and moved ever closer to Orihime.

"**I WILL KILL YOU!"**

"LIKE HELL YOU WILL, JACKASS!"

Sora looked up just in time to see Ichigo, blood leaking profusely from a cut somewhere within his scalp, jump back up through the hole in the apartment wall, gripping his _zanpakutou_ in both hands. As Sora watched the strawberry-blonde boy rush forward, he leaned forward, letting two of his teeth loosen, and shot out a wad of some strange gunk at Ichigo.

Rather than allow it to touch him, Ichigo focused power into his blade and swung down, cleaving it straight in half; it was a partially sound move, if only because the tip of his sword melted a bit rather than any part of his body. His path now clear, Ichigo continued to press forward, and swung his sword cleanly through Sora's already-damaged hand, right at the wrist. With a yelp, Orihime and the hand took a fairly small tumble to the apartment floor; meanwhile, Ichigo landed right in front of a now-howling Sora, and Ichigo swung upwards, chopping off Sora's other hand.

Blood gushed from both of Sora's wounds, and Orihime closed her eyes, trying not to cry and trying to make sure that she didn't see any more of the battle. However, when Ichigo spoke next, she couldn't help but open her eyes and listen to him.

"Older brothers are born first for a reason," Ichigo said; his voice came out measured and slow as he flicked his _zanpakutou, _cleaning the blood off of it. "You know what that reason is? It's so that they can protect the family that comes after them. So when you say something stupid like 'I will kill you' to your little sister…you're betraying your duty to her! And you lose the right to call yourself her brother!"

Orihime was standing now, hugging herself, while Sora stared at Ichigo with barely disguised hatred, twitching his tail as if predicating his next attack.

"**I took care of Orihime for fifteen years, Kurosaki. You bastard, you have no right to tell me that I am not her brother! After all I have done, you have no right…!"**

"He has every right," Rukia replied as she emerged from the kitchen. "He is a Soul Reaper. But more importantly than that, he is an older brother himself. And he cares about his sisters as much as you cared for yours." She turned her attention to Ichigo, then Orihime. "Your friend…Tatsuki, correct? She will be fine as well. But now, we must worry about you, Inoue-san. I will heal you so that you can be restored to your body. Do not worry."

Sora rounded on Rukia with a snarl on his lips.** "Stay out of this!"**

With a sigh, Rukia flash-stepped over to Orihime's body, knelt down, and started the healing process; Sora, however, would not be ignored, and rushed in, ready to strike. What he hadn't anticipated, though, was Rukia's decision to draw Sode no Shirayuki in the middle of her high-speed movement, meaning that she was only using one hand to heal Orihime's body while having the other free to slash or stab, provided that she could get into the right position.

But before Rukia could thrust Sode no Shirayuki right between Sora's eyes, Orihime, stumbling and crying, thrust herself into Sora's path.

Blood tore through the air yet again; this time, it was not Sora's, but Orihime's. As her brother's teeth sank into her shoulder, the girl gritted her teeth against the pain, and spoke.

"…Brother…." She sniffed. "I was trying to tell you before…that I never forgot about you. I was trying to tell you…that the only reason I told you about my day so often was…. It was because I didn't want to make you sad."

Sora's single eye widened in realization, then dimmed as confusion over what Orihime meant began to sink in.

"I…wanted to show you that I was getting better. I wanted to show you that I was going to be alright, Sora. By telling you all about my life, my friends, I wanted you to see and know that I wasn't going to stay sad forever."

Her voice faded into silence for a short time, but soon enough, she managed to gain some strength and continue speaking, though now she had completely lost the fight to avoid crying.

"I never once wanted you to feel abandoned, never. I…I'm sorry, brother."

Both Ichigo and Rukia witnessed the scene in silence, their mouths drawn into identical frowns. At the very least, Orihime's words had indeed stopped her brother from going even more insane, but there was no way that they could leave the situation as it was.

Orihime then withdrew from him, and put her hands on her hairpins, just above and behind her ears; Sora blinked lethargically, the only sign that he did, however dimly, recognize them.

"I…I wear these every day, brother, because you gave them to me. This is how I remember you when I don't pray for you. And I promise you now that I will never, ever, ever make you feel forgotten again. Even if I have to pray a thousand times to you, I won't let it happen."

Somehow, despite the pain, despite the fear, she put on a small, soft smile.

"I'll always love you and always remember you, brother. Always…."

For some time afterwards, the room remained quiet, and then Ichigo hefted his blade once more; the sound of his sword shifting made everyone in the room, except for Sora, look at him.

"This is the only thing we can do for him now, right, Kuchiki?" Ichigo asked quietly. "So…you deal with Inoue. I'll take care of him."

Orihime's lip quivered in fear, and a little nervousness. "Kurosaki-kun, what do you mean? Are you going to…kill…my brother?"

"Nah, it's not like that. I…I'm gonna purify him. Let him go on to rest in peace. If I leave him like this…if I leave him like this, you're both gonna suffer. I can't let that happen."

Rukia nodded. "I am almost finished here. Do what you must."

Sora leaned forward, as if offering his neck to Ichigo, and closed his eye.

"**Do it. Just…free me from this. You were right, Kurosaki-kun." **Sora's voice was calmer now, reflecting his characteristic maturity and gentleness. **"I…I forgot what it meant to be an older brother. I've become no better than the lowest dog. Go on ahead. Let's end this farce."**

Ichigo took a formal stance, raised his _zanpakutou _above his head with both hands, and swung downwards in a single, clean cleave, splitting Sora's mask in half entirely.

Orihime put her hands to her mouth, but was pleasantly surprised when the mask simply fell away, revealing the rest of Sora's face while his body began to dissolve from the tail on up. Rukia stopped healing Orihime's physical body, and moved over to Orihime's spirit, placing hands on the wounds that Sora had just opened up.

As Sora's upper body finally disappeared, Orihime looked up, leaning on Rukia for support, and managed to widen her smile.

"Goodbye, brother. Have…a good day at work."

At first, Sora seemed confused by the remark, but then he remembered what had happened on the day of his accident….

* * *

_Sora sighed and straightened his tie one more time before he headed out of the bathroom and into the living room; Orihime was sitting in a corner, staring directly at the wall._

"_Hime-chan, I'm headed out to work, OK?"_

_Orihime didn't say a word; Sora rubbed his chin in consternation but didn't press the issue._

_**She's still upset about the hairpins, huh…. Well, I suppose there's no help for it. I'll try talking to her later.**_

"_I love you, Hime-chan. Take care of yourself. I'll see you later."_

_With that, he left the apartment…for the last time._

* * *

…and he, too, smiled at his little sister, as the last of his body faded and his spirit was whisked away to Soul Society.

Ichigo looked up at the ceiling, and then directed his attention to the bloodstains on the floor, the hole in the wall, and finally, Rukia.

"…and just what are we going to do about all of this?" he said. "I hope you realize that I'm a student, not a carpenter."

Rukia didn't look up from where she was healing Orihime. "As soon as I finish with this matter, I will show you."

If Orihime felt offended by how indirectly Rukia referred to her, she made no indication of it; in no time at all, she was on her feet, and was already in Ichigo's face with questions.

"So, Kurosaki-kun. Who's this girl with you? Why are you dressed like that? How did you…?"

Rukia took out something that looked a lot like a lighter with a ball on top in place of a cap, and cleared her throat. "Inoue-san…."

Orihime turned around, still smiling brightly. "Yes?"

Rukia put the device between herself and Orihime and pressed a switch on the front of the device; the ball popped up on a spring, turning into a duck face and creating a miniature explosion as it changed. Orihime's eyes went wide, and she collapsed on the ground as if she'd lost all the bones in her body.

"That takes care of her," the petite Reaper murmured, picking Orihime up and walking over to where her body lay. "Now to restore her back to this thing…."

Ichigo rounded on Rukia, his eyes wide and brows knitted. "Hey, hey, wait a second! What the hell was that with the…?"

"I modified her memories," Rukia said. She lowered Orihime, and the girl's spirit literally faded into her body. "The same was done to your father and your sisters. The only downside is that the memories that will replace these are somewhat random, subject to influence from Inoue-san's mind."

Sighing, Ichigo shrugged and rubbed his head. "And Inoue's half-insane as it is, so God knows what she'll come up with."

"I need your help with the other one. Come with me."

* * *

With a grunt, Ichigo dropped Tatsuki down next to Orihime's sleeping form, and then looked up at Rukia, who was finishing a conversation on her Soul Phone.

"Thank you, Lieutenant Kurotsuchi."

With that, she hung up and looked upwards at Ichigo. "The Twelfth Division will be dispatching a group to fix this damage." She looked around, and nodded once, seeing Ichigo's worried expression. "Do not worry. They will come and restore things well. Now, as for you…am I keeping you from anything important?"

Ichigo shrugged. "I have to study."

"Very well. Then we shall return to your home and I will depart from there."

She walked over to Tatsuki's unconscious body and forced one of the girl's eyelids open before setting off the device that she'd used on Orihime; Tatsuki visibly shuddered but did nothing else, and Rukia returned the modifying tool to her robes.

"Let us depart, Kurosaki-san."

* * *

**Wednesday, May 20****th****, 9:30 AM**

**Karakura High School, Class 1-3**

As another day dawned at Karakura High School, the birds were singing, the sky was clear, and a tale that could only be spawned from the mouth of one Orihime Inoue was being told to her friends and classmates in Class 1-3.

It was too bad that almost none of them, save Tatsuki, was willing to believe that story.

As she looked into the disbelieving faces of Chizuru, Ryou, and a few of the other girls, Orihime waved her hands around, puffing her cheeks out as her irritation rose.

"I'm telling you! Sumo wrestler! Bazooka! It totally happened!"

Ryou scoffed at her and turned away, head shaking in confusion. "Orihime, you really think too much like a kid sometimes, you know? A sumo wrestler with a bazooka broke into your apartment and destroyed the wall? That's absurd."

"Still, a beautiful imagination is a _very_ attractive feature in a girl," Chizuru said with a catlike smile. "Don't mind them, Hime; I love to hear your stories. Though, you have to admit, it isn't…very probable."

"W-Well, I remember it, too…." Tatsuki muttered. The admission earned her shocked stares from the other girls clustered around Orihime's desk. "I know it's weird, but it's clear as day…."

As their babbling and volume increased, Ichigo looked at them from where he sat across the room, sighed, and scratched his head.

…_So then…I guess even my wacky father is normal enough for that memory modifying thing to give him something not so crazy. But that doesn't explain how Tatsuki remembers that crazy-ass story too…._

The door rattled, and Ichigo looked over to see Ms. Ochi, dressed in a short, sky-blue top and a nice pair of khaki capris, enter the room and make her way to the front, brown ponytail trailing behind her.

"All right, kids. We've got to get to work if we're going to get you in good shape for finals week! Kunieda! Come on!"

As Ryou broke off the conversation with her friends and everyone scrambled to get ready for the start of class, naturally, no one noticed the small girl in black robes standing in the air above them, looking down on them with a small smile on her face.

Well, no one except Ichigo, but he was too busy pretending to not notice her.

* * *

**Saturday, May 23****rd****, 4:30 PM**

**Soul Society, Seireitei: Thirteenth Division Barracks**

Thankfully for Ichigo, the few days between the Sora Inoue incident and his return to Soul Society after classes on Saturday were relatively peaceful; with only a Hollow attack or two every day, and with most of them being lightweight fighters on top of that, he and Rukia had little trouble disposing of them.

Moreover, his actual working relationship with Rukia was growing more and more into a natural partnership. Her formal politeness in most situations where Ichigo wasn't doing something stupid to frustrate her remained, but it was easier for Ichigo to read into her more empathetic responses, her deeper words of approval and her more light-hearted rebukes.

She had also taken to following him and his friends around when she wasn't in the middle of hunting Hollows while he attended school, or in Soul Society taking care of "further arrangements" for his training, though she was stubbornly tight-lipped about why; when he had asked her flat-out, she said, simply, "I am simply getting to know you better," and that was that.

So far as his training was concerned, his progress was significantly more mixed. Swordsmanship?—no problem at all; he was progressing steadily, coordinating his blows more, remembering his footwork, and keeping control of his movements even in the middle of the sky. Controlling his spiritual energy?—not as easy a task. Even with his overall power output lowered to half with the restraining band in place, he still had to fight hard to get the fine control over his strength that he needed, and it showed.

Case in point: right now, after his tenth try in a row, he had yet to hit the "margin of error" that he was allowed to be within insofar as the crystal ball exercise was concerned. As testament to her increased tolerance for his somewhat erratic progress, Rukia hadn't said a word, simply allowing him to try again and again and again as he liked.

Of course, Ichigo's cursing and grunts and yells of general frustration drew the attention of most of the unoccupied division members that were on the barrack training fields, including Kiyone and Sentarou, who had in their usual fashion already delivered their papers and fought their way through giving the daily report to Captain Ukitake and now had nothing but downtime.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit, this is a pain in the ass," Ichigo muttered, putting the sphere down and sitting cross-legged on the ground. "I know I'm almost there, but dammit, I can't take this!"

"Then do you wish to practice with the blade again?" Rukia asked calmly, keeping her arms crossed. "I have no objections to that."

Ichigo stood up in a flash and held his hand out for the _shinai_. "Well, if that's what we're doing, then hell, yeah! I'm ready!"

Rukia simply looked at him, and then shook her head before picking up one of the two _shinai _that lay beside her and tossing it to him. He caught it in his outstretched hand without even trying and pointed it confidently at her.

"Bring it on. This time, I'm going to win for sure!"

Rukia simply sniffed. "You have gotten skilled enough that I have no intention of holding back. Be wary."

In the space of a second, she was in his face, _shinai _swinging down to strike. Reflexively, he lifted up his own blade and blocked the strike just in time, then pushed back, forcing Rukia to crouch when she hit the ground, using a hand to keep herself upright as she slid backwards.

As soon as she'd stopped moving, though, she took all of two steps forward before breaking into Flash Steps, using the high-speed movement to circle around to Ichigo's back. With no hesitation, she swung right at Ichigo's ribcage, and struck true, forcing a bit of spittle from his mouth and a lot of air out of his lungs as he stumbled forward.

"I am not done yet…. Prepare yourself!"

Though he was more than dismayed, Ichigo could do little else but grunt, groan, and moan as Rukia circled back around to his front and lashed out at his shins and stomach, striking loudly and painfully each and every time.

"Kurosaki-san! Kindly stop treating this exercise as if it requires no effort on your part! Surely you are not this helpless?"

Ichigo shook the stars out of his eyes, readied his _shinai _again, and hopped back a few times, looking around for any signs of Rukia as he did so; she had seemingly vanished from his sight after her admonishment.

Then, he saw a shadow growing beneath him, and he looked up, raised his blade to block yet again—as Rukia was attacking from above, he met with success, but only by the skin of his teeth, as the blow from Rukia's _shinai _rattled him down to his very bones.

"So, you still stand," she said, continuing to press down on him even after she landed. "Very good…but, I wonder, can you keep it up!"

Without breaking her stride, she backed off, only to circle back around to his side and strike out again. Ichigo moved to block as best he could, but it was futile, albeit barely; she slipped by his guard and smacked his other ribcage, knocking him over yet again.

Groaning, and putting a hand to his chest as he rolled onto his knees, Ichigo didn't hear or see Rukia stand in front of him, her _shinai_ hovering just above or near his head.

"Will you yield?"

Ichigo sighed and let his shoulders fall, releasing his _shinai_.

"Yeah, I'm done. You win…yet again."

Rukia nodded and put her _shinai_ downas well.

"Then our next step is to work on your sensory abilities. Your inability to track and counter my movement stems in some part from the fact that we have devoted no time to it." She crossed his arms as he stood up and brushed off his dirt-caked robes. "First and foremost, I need to know this—when Inoue-san was injured and I told you to inspect her wounds…what do you remember feeling?"

Ichigo scratched his head and put on his thinking scowl, tapping his sandaled foot against the ground as he thought back to the classroom environment he'd been within on that day. Though the recollection was initially foggy, envisioning Orihime's wounds eventually allowed him—or more accurately, forced him—to remember a cold, crawling sensation that had all but oozed out of the wound.

"Something unnatural," he said quietly. "Something…that was very disgusting."

"That was the Hollow's Spiritual Pressure. Basically, it was the signature of its Spiritual Energy, made manifest as a sort of physical force. The Twelfth Division scientists define the difference as a matter of potential versus action—Spiritual Energy is the inner capacity of the spiritual being and Spiritual Pressure is that energy when put into motion or action. Spiritually-charged attacks or skills, such as _Hadou-_typeKidou spells and healing techniques, tend to leave Spiritual Pressure lingering in the area of effect. It is also possible to simply exert Pressure to immobilize or demoralize an opponent, simply by concentrating and focusing one's Spiritual Energy and directing it outwards."

"So, I'm guessing that people with lots of Spiritual Energy can put out a lot of pressure," Ichigo observed. "Sounds cool. When do I learn how to do that?"

"By the time you know how to sense Spiritual Energy and conceal your own," Rukia said, "you will be able to easily reverse the process and impress your Spiritual Pressure upon others. For the time being we shall focus on your sensory ability."

She produced a long white handkerchief, one that could easily be used as a blindfold, and gave it to Ichigo.

"You can guess what you need to do now."

Sighing, Ichigo tied the cloth around his eyes and let his scowl deepen. "OK, so let me guess. I've got to do the same thing as the whole 'Spirit Particle pulling and sensing' stuff, right?"

"Yes, you do. But do not attempt to call anything towards you; the walls of the Seireitei are built with_ Sekkiseki_, a rock material meant to negate Spiritual Energy. It not only defends the city from spiritual attacks but also tends to interfere with the gathering of particles. You simply have to concentrate, and you should be able to discern my Spiritual Energy on some level."

Ichigo didn't bother responding as he tried to reach the necessary state of mind, evening out his breathing and moving as little as possible. As he did, he noticed a strange, fuzzy sensation…buzzing…at the edge of his consciousness; it was somewhat similar to the feeling he'd gotten from looking at the Hollow wound, but it lacked the intrinsic foulness. Even stranger, it seemed familiar to him, as if he'd felt it many times before.

As he did with the Spiritual Particles, he reached out for the feeling, and was surprised when it actually felt as if he were physically touching something, almost like a thread. He concentrated further on the thread and found himself surprised when a familiar name came to him; the 'thread' he felt in his hand grew thicker, wider, as the name echoed in his head.

_RUKIA_

"…You…you…summoned Spirit Threads," Rukia said, her voice hesitant and choking. "But…how?"

Ichigo blinked, and then scowled as he felt the handkerchief shift on his face. "Spirit what?"

The blindfold suddenly dropped from his eyes, and after blinking rapidly to readjust to the light, he looked down, where he expected to see Rukia.

He did, of course, but he also saw what appeared to be a ribbon of red light clenched in his right hand that connected itself to Rukia. Confused, he looked up at her stunned face, then all around him; he saw multiple red threads floating in the air, a number of which were connected to the Reapers around them that were sparring or passing through to another part of the Thirteenth Division barracks.

"These things? I…I 'summoned' them?"

"For lack of a better term," she said, her shock fading slightly but still fairly obvious. "To be more precise, you have actually attuned yourself to the Spiritual Energies of the people around you—myself included—and visualized our powers as 'threads'. This is not what I meant for you to learn today; I simply wanted you to be able to discern what a spiritual signature felt like."

Ichigo grinned. "So I surpassed expectations, huh? Not bad for a rookie."

Rukia nodded. "That is so…if it was not a fluke."

Instantly, Ichigo's smile dropped off his face.

"Now enough talk. Close your eyes again, and try to concentrate on my Spiritual Energy. Describe to me what sort of feelings it gives you, if you can."

Sighing, Ichigo did as he was told, idly rubbing the Spirit Thread still in his hand. As he stood there, he realized that an odd chill was now coming from the thread, and that the source was located roughly where Rukia was. He realized that since it was Rukia's thread, the 'source' had to be Rukia herself.

"Cold," he said aloud. "It feels cold."

"And?"

"And that's it."

Though she knew he couldn't see it, Rukia shook her head and sighed, crossing her arms. "There is more. Focus."

Ichigo found himself gripping the thread even tighter. "I can't. I'm already putting all I've got into this."

"You can do more! I know it! I know that my own Spiritual Energy is not just 'cold'. There is more—you simply are not focusing enough!"

Ichigo grit his teeth. "Dammit, Kuchiki, I…."

He stopped speaking, as he suddenly felt like he'd stepped into the middle of a freezer in nothing but his underwear. Moreover, he quickly realized that the sharp increase in the cold was coming from Rukia, and that there was almost a palpable rage in the air.

_She's angry. It's changing because she's angry._

"OK, OK, stop, stop. Just calm down or you're going to freeze me solid."

"I had hoped to avoid using such a tactic to make you pay attention," Rukia said with a sigh. "I am not truly upset, Kurosaki-san. I simply let my Spiritual Energy increase as if I were upset and put a small amount of my frustration into the attempt. However, you do seem to understand one of the most vital points of sensing Spiritual Energy—discerning the emotional state of whomever it is that you are sensing."

She reined in her power and walked around to Ichigo's back. "Tell me now. What do you feel?"

Ichigo knew, based on the position that her voice had come from, and the shift of the cold source, that she had moved around him, but didn't turn to face her.

"It's…calm. Collected and under control."

Knowing he couldn't see it, Rukia smiled.

_So he is not totally helpless after all._

Ichigo's brows shifted. "And now I feel a little bit of…warmth…is that happiness?"

"Perhaps, it is; perhaps, not."

"Stop being so cryptic," Ichigo barked in mild annoyance. "It's a pain in the ass!"

"Enough. We are moving to the next activity. Let go of my Spirit Thread and reach out into the environment around you…."

As Rukia gave out her instructions, Kiyone and Sentarou continued to watch, as they had been since the start of Ichigo and Rukia's sparring match; the taller of the Thirteenth Division Third Seats crossed his arms and let his eyelids lower.

"The kid's a pretty fast study, I see." His tone was bored, or at least sounded so. "But I don't get how he can pick up Spirit Threads so fast and be so useless at actually controlling his own strength. It's weird."

"Well, it wasn't a walk in the park for any of us either, I recall," Kiyone said. "Maybe it has something to do with him being still alive, or something."

"That could be true. Who knows?"

Ichigo, oblivious to their conversation, simply turned his head back and forth as he followed Rukia's instructions. Initially, he could still identify only the cold sensation of Rukia's aura. With some concentration, he gradually felt the warmth of his own energy signature, something similar but different to heat blossoming out of him; this soon extended to fuzzy impressions of the two closest powers besides his and Rukia's—that is, Kiyone's and Sentarou's.

"Hey, Kuchiki, who else is here? I feel two people over…there…." Ichigo pointed almost exactly at where Kiyone and Sentarou were standing.

"Kiyone Kotetsu and Sentarou Kotsubaki, the Third Seats of the Thirteenth Division," Rukia said. "They were the people that were…speaking to Captain Ukitake earlier today, when we reported to him."

_If you can consider that cacophonous racket they were making __**speaking**_, the small, dark-haired Reaper thought to herself, grimacing at the memory of Kiyone and Sentarou fighting as per usual over who got to do some small favor for Captain Ukitake—this particular favor being pouring his tea.

"Oh, you mean that chatty squirt and the bearded guy that have crushes on the Captain? Huh. They feel kind of strange, not at all like I was expecting."

Sentarou and Kiyone both began to gape like fish at mention of the word 'crush', but Sentarou recovered first.

"Bastard little brat, what the hell did you just say about a crush?"

Ichigo lifted his blindfold and blinked. "Oh. You were this close? Huh, I guess I don't know how to measure distance by senses or whatever yet."

Sentarou raised a fist with a pulsing vein running parallel to his knuckles. "That's not important! What was that just now about me having a crush on Captain Ukitake?"

"What, you don't? I mean, you were acting a lot like it." Ichigo cleared his throat and began to parrot Sentarou's words from earlier. "'Captain Ukitake, allow me! It would be an honor to pour your tea for you! Kyo is far too graceless to do it properly!'"

Kiyone's face turned beet red, the mangling of her name more than enough to bring her out of her daydreams of actually getting a 'chance' with Captain Ukitake. "Did you just call me Kyo? My name is KIYONE, idiot! KI-YO-NE! Sound it out if you have to!"

"All right, all right, take it easy!" Ichigo retorted, eyebrows rising from their usual furrow. "Look, I'm bad with names and faces, OK? It takes time for me to get this kind of thing right."

"But even an idiot like you should be able to tell the difference between Kyo and Kiyone!" The Third Seat's hands began to chop the air violently and randomly as her eyes narrowed and pupils shrank ever so slightly. "I mean, one has two syllables, the other has three…!"

Sentarou's grouchiness in the face of Ichigo's insult to him faded slightly as she continued ranting and raving on, seemingly talking to the air as she turned away from Ichigo, Rukia, and Sentarou.

"She hates it when people shorten her name like that," Sentarou said to Ichigo, noticing that the boy's confusion had grown to more than visible levels at her sudden display of anger. "Especially since Kyo can be a boy's name. You know?"

Ichigo shrugged and scratched his head. "Makes sense, I guess."

Rukia cleared her throat. "Kurosaki-san…could you kindly put your blindfold back on? You were practicing, were you not?"

"Oh, right. Sorry." Ichigo pulled the cloth back down and began to concentrate again, but after a few seconds, he took it off, shaking his head in annoyance.

"Sorry. Kanoye's anger is making it too hard to pick out individual signals. It's like having a flashlight shining in your face."

Kiyone, of course, overheard him butcher her name again, and this time her face went from resembling a tomato to resembling an eggplant as she slowly turned to look at him over her shoulder. With all the slow, trembling rage she possessed, she moved towards Ichigo, hands clenched into fists that promised copious amounts of pain and violence.

"MY NAME IS KIYONE!"

Sentarou pressed a hand to his face and sighed deeply. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you, kid?"

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_This one was a little tricky, if only because I didn't want to jump straight into the next big event right away. The actual manga does go from plot point to plot point very quickly early on (at least until they reach Namek-er, SOUL SOCIETY, sorry, but based on the timeline from the Bleach Wiki, at least some amount of time does pass between events; for the sake of making things interesting, I've decided to 'cover' these spans of time now and then just to remind people that this story doesn't happen in a vacuum._

_And that no matter how mature Ichigo gets in this story, he still has a problem getting people's names right._

…_Or remembering who they are in general._

_No Cultural Notes this time out, everything was pretty straightforward I think._

_Anyway, with my two-updates-per-month quota met for January, you can probably expect the next upload sometime in February, depending on how stuck I get while doing the next chapters._

_To everyone that has given reviews, much thanks and appreciation. _

_That's all for now. See you next class._

_~Zero-Sennin_


	5. Lesson 5: Animal Care 101

_Substitute__School__, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 5: Animal Care 101, or Purging Possessed Parakeets_

* * *

**Monday, May 25th, 12:30 PM**

**Karakura****High School****, Rooftop**

After suffering through a long, tiring weekend of training with Rukia, studying Reaper and school-related material, and practically drowning in the homework he'd had to put off due to Reaper patrols and training, Ichigo was actually all but raring to go back to school and just settle down with his friends for a bit.

It was a perfect day for it, as well—it was warm but not too hot and the sky was clear, befitting the pre-summer weather that would in time give way to blistering, soul-crushingly agonizing heat waves.

There were only two things stopping him from doing so today.

First and foremost, Rukia was, as had become her custom, watching every move he made. She'd taken off after watching Ichigo for an hour or so, but came back to the classroom less than fifteen minutes later and walked around, examining pretty much everything, or listening to Ms. Ochi's lectures with a puzzled frown as she heard the students' responses to their teacher's questions ("Your modern form of Japanese is so confusing and riddled with shortcuts. Has the language decayed so much that no one but the women can be bothered to speak correctly half of the time?").

The second problem was more immediate—right now, where he sat on the school rooftop with Mizuiro and Keigo (Tatsuki and Orihime were off with Ryou and some of the other girls from 1-3, and Chad was by all appearances absent), Reiji Ooshima, one of the many, many people that took issue with his hair color, had come over to him and his friends, trailed by one of his flunkies. Ooshima, being a stereotypical delinquent down to the multiple earrings, bleached-blonde afro, and pierced lip, had rudely pushed Keigo out of the way and hung over Ichigo with a nasty sneer on his face.

Luckily, unlike the Rukia issue, Ichigo could deal with Ooshima much more handily.

"Oh, it's the chicken-head. What's up? You're in my personal space, you know."

"Who the hell are you calling a chicken head, Strawberry-boy?" Ooshima retorted, his eyebrow twitching and veins popping. "More importantly, why the hell are you still bleaching your hair? Didn't I tell you to cut that crap out?"

Ichigo scoffed and shook his head. "And didn't I tell you that this is my natural hair color, you dumbass chicken-head?"

Now the corner of Ooshima's mouth was twitching in place rapidly and irregularly, forming a somewhat distorted smile on his face; his hands clenched and unclenched, as his knuckles popped menacingly. "Call me chicken-head one more goddamn time. I dare you!"

"Hey, hey, everyone, let's just calm down here, huh?" Keigo said with a smile, sliding between Ooshima and Ichigo with a grin. "There's no need to fight. We know you're tough, Ooshima, and to be honest, Ichigo isn't lying about…."

Ooshima let a growl escape his throat as he pushed Keigo aside. "I don't care about any of that. What I care about is the fact that this punk has been constantly disrespecting me and doesn't seem sorry about it!"

"Maybe if you weren't such a loudmouthed weakling of a chicken-head…." Ichigo stood up, hands in his pockets as his scowl grew dangerously dark. "…I'd probably manage to be a little nicer to you in a hundred years."

The last bit of self-restraint Ooshima had was swept down the river of gibbering rage as he reached into his inner shirt pocket, revealing his mesh undershirt. "Or maybe you'll shut up after I stuff yer face full of IRON KNUCKLE SANDWICH!"

With that, he pulled out his right hand, revealing the weapon in question, and cocked his fist back for a punch; Keigo began to whimper and blubber, but Ichigo seemed entirely unconcerned; in fact, he seemed to be looking over Ooshima's shoulder at someone or something coming up behind the blonde delinquent.

"Let's give him the old one-two," Ichigo said suddenly, taking his left hand out of his pocket and shoving Ooshima back by the face.

Confused by Ichigo's words, Ooshima let himself be moved, and thusly was set up for the 'two' of the 'one-two'—that is to say, Chad picking Ooshima up by the collar and chucking him off to the other side of the roof. Now frightened out of his mind, Ooshima shrieked and gibbered in a pitch better suited to a frightened little girl; after skipping off the surface of the roof one or two times, he plowed into the wall of the structure that housed the stairs, and lay still.

"Rei-chan!" his flunky yelled, rushing over to help him. "Dammit, I told him to let it go! Idiot!"

While that was going on, Chad turned his focus back to his friends and raised a hand in silent greeting; Ichigo immediately noticed the bandages covering the skin under the taller boy's shaggy dark hair, as well as the wrappings on his right wrist, but didn't get to ask what was going on before Keigo interrupted.

"Oh, thank God you came, Chad. Though I think it would've been good if you'd been just a little more careful, I mean after all you could've killed Ooshima and that would have been bad…."

Chad nodded. "Mm."

"Hey, what happened to you, man?" Ichigo asked, to take advantage of the fact that Keigo's normal chattering was cut off by Chad's response. "You look like you got into a fight or something."

Chad briefly paused, as if going over the sequence of events in his mind. "Yesterday a girder from a building hit me in the head. And this morning, when I went to buy bread on my way to school, I got into a motorcycle accident. My hand and everything got messed up, but the guy on the bike was even worse off so I took him to the hospital."

Ichigo, Keigo, and Mizuiro all gaped silently at him, which he was either ignoring or taking in stride.

"Are you sure you're not some kind of Terminator or something?" Keigo finally managed to gasp. "Steel girders, bike accidents…and you just walked away…that's insane."

Chad merely shrugged in response and put down the bag he carried in his right hand so that he could put down something that was on his shoulder, hidden from view by his broad back; Ichigo, Keigo, and Mizuiro watched with mild interest as the item in question turned out to be a cage with a parakeet inside.

Keigo blinked. "What? Whose parakeet is that?"

"Yesterday, I…." Chad paused and scratched his head, then shrugged. "…got it from a friend."

Keigo pouted and glared at Chad. "Hey, don't skip out on details like that!"

"My name is Yuuichi Shibata," the bird said suddenly, its voice and enunciation clear as day; its voice bore a passing semblance to a little boy's, oddly enough, and not the somewhat screechy tones that one would expect from a parakeet. "What's your name, mister brown-hair?"

Keigo's attention was immediately diverted by the bird. "Whoa-ho-ho! You actually talk like a human, little guy? Impressive! Chad, this bird's awesome!"

Ichigo simply looked at the bird, feeling some part of his spiritual senses twinge and tickle just by making eye contact with it.

_Why…? What's with this bird?_

"So you feel something odd about this bird, do you?" Rukia asked, her voice clearly coming from above Ichigo; to his credit, he managed to suppress his first reaction, which would have been "jump up and panic very loudly", without much trouble. When he looked up at where she stood with an annoyed glare, she simply smiled coolly, knowing that his response was the closest thing she'd get to a 'yes'.

"Very good. You are correct. There are two souls within this bird—one of which seems to be a regular Plus. The other is the native soul of the animal."

"_Will you hit him with a Soul Burial now?"_ mouthed Ichigo, turning away from Keigo, Mizuiro, and Chad only slightly to hide his actions; Rukia shook her head in response, stepping daintily out of the air and moving towards the cage.

"I am curious about something, actually. This sort of merger between two spirits does not happen naturally. Someone…or something…caused this to happen." She bent down to look at the parakeet face to face, and it met her gaze, seemingly ignoring Keigo, Mizuiro, and Chad. "But I cannot find out now. This bird can see me, at the very least, so asking it questions would not be a problem were it not for your friends."

The parakeet blinked and cocked its head, but stayed silent, giving Ichigo the impression that it was holding its tongue; however, it soon looked away as Chad passed a small piece of bread to it through the bars of the cage.

"I will take care of it myself," Rukia said, folding her arms. "Do not worry."

* * *

**4:30 PM**

**Karakura****Town****, Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

Ichigo groaned in exhaustion as he got off of his bike and locked it to the lamppost near his house; on top of it being his turn to clean up after school, Ooshima had attempted to stop him at the gates and start another fight. Of course, the idiot had been almost completely alone, and Ichigo hadn't even bothered, at least initially, to oblige him, simply whizzing by Ooshima on his bike.

Ooshima being Ooshima, things got worse from there. The delinquent boy had proceeded to chase Ichigo for a few good blocks, eventually necessitating that Ichigo get off of his bike and deal with the problem personally, courtesy of his friends "Mr. Left Hook" and "Mrs. Right Straight".

Though it didn't waste too much time in general, Ooshima's chasing had driven him off track and he'd had to navigate back to familiar streets before continuing on his way home, preoccupied with thoughts about how he was going to balance study and Soul Reaper work tonight.

…_Gotta study literature for tomorrow morning, but Kuchiki's going to want to practice sparring and spiritual energy sensing. So, if I wear myself out memorizing that stuff I'll be useless when it comes to whatever she wants to do…._

His train of thought derailed and crashed the moment he opened up the door, exchanged his shoes for his house slippers, and walked further into the house, intending to stop by the kitchen and get a snack before going upstairs; that was because he was nearly run over by Yuzu, who was carrying a box full of medical supplies.

"Ichi-nii, you're in the way!" Yuzu said, frowning at the way Ichigo stared at her.

"Um, what the heck is—?"

"Stop standing around like that!" Karin rushed by, pushing a bed with an injured man directly past Ichigo. "Geez! We don't have time for this!"

"Does someone mind taking two damn seconds to explain to me what's going on?"

"There was an accident at the intersection!" Yuzu said over her shoulder. "We've got a lot of people hurt!"

Ichigo's confused scowl gave way to a shocked silence, but he didn't have time to muse over it, as his father's voice shook the house in an impotent roar.

"FOUR BEDS, I SAID! DAMMIT, DO YOU THINK I CAN TAKE CARE OF ALL THESE PEOPLE BY MYSELF? …NO! I will NOT accept that! Tell your boss Ishida that Kurosaki's calling a favor and get me those beds TEN DAYS AGO!"

Ichigo sidled into the main office of the clinic through the side door that connected it to the house, sweating just slightly. He knew that his father was capable of being quite serious when lives were on the line, but he'd never, ever seen Isshin Kurosaki so pissed off before.

"I can't believe this horse-crap. Those butt-kissing, scum-munching, lower-level idiots at that hospital do nothing but…."

"D…Dad? Anything I can do to help—?"

"No! Just go sit in a corner somewhere and stay outta the way!"

Cowed by his father's uncharacteristic snappiness, Ichigo did precisely that, leaving the office and going to sulk in a corner.

_Damn, Dad. You really can be scary when you're worked up…._

Yuzu's yelling snapped Ichigo out of his funk, primarily because of what she said.

"Daddy, get Ichi-nii! I can't lift this big guy and take this bird of his too!"

…_Big guy… with a bird? Nah, couldn't be…?_

Without being told twice, Ichigo got up and rushed outside to where Yuzu's voice had come from, and saw that his suspicions were true.

His right arm slung over Isshin's shoulder, his head hung low, was Chad, breathing heavily and sweating; the back of his flower-printed shirt was stained with copious amounts of blood.

The large half-Mexican looked up at Ichigo, his visible eye dull and pained. "Ichigo…?"

"Ch-Chad…."

Suddenly, a wave of something foul washed over Ichigo's skin; he could practically taste the smell of something acrid and burning, something similar to rotting garbage, and his skin tingled in fearful anticipation.

And the source of this feeling was coming from Chad's back.

_I know this feeling, _Ichigo thought. _It's_ _a Hollow wound. It has to be!_

However, rather than ask too many questions, he simply braced himself under Chad's other arm, taking the parakeet's cage from his friend. In moments, father and son managed to get Chad onto a free table in the clinic, and Isshin pulled Chad's shirt down while Ichigo, Karin, and Yuzu stood nearby, ready to assist.

The injury spanned practically all of Chad's upper back, and looked like a burning, vaguely hand-shaped object had pressed into him, leaving bloody trails streaming from the edges and down his back.

Now that he was looking at it directly, the Hollow's Spiritual Pressure was strong enough to nearly overwhelm Ichigo's spiritual senses; he held himself together as best as he could, but his hands shook noticeably, rattling the parakeet's cage. Her attention drawn to the sound, Karin briefly looked down at the parakeet; as soon as she did, her eyes widened in panic, and she quickly looked away, subtly enough to avoid the notice of her family.

"You're staying here tonight, young man," Isshin said grimly, putting a hand on Chad's shoulder. "Yuzu, Karin, get a bed ready for him now."

Chad slowly stood, gently moving Isshin's hand, and pulled back on his shirt, seemingly ignoring the spasms of pain that wracked his frame as he did so.

"Thank you, but…I'm…fine."

He took all of two steps forward before falling flat on his face.

"…or…maybe…not…."

* * *

**4:36 PM**

After helping his father take Chad to bed and leaving the parakeet in the clinic room, Ichigo ran upstairs, pulling his Reaper gear out of his backpack before he reached into his desk and got Alfred's pill. In short order, the Soul Candy inhabited Ichigo's body as normal, while Ichigo checked his Soul Phone for missed alerts.

"Dammit, it came in while I was on the way home! But if I got the alert, then so did…Kuchiki! Goddamn it!"

He began to dial his number, but stopped, barely restraining the urge to swear again. If she was injured or otherwise needed aid, she wouldn't answer.

"Alfred, do the usual. I'll be back soon!"

Noticing his 'master's' distress, Alfred-Ichigo simply nodded, though once Ichigo turned his back to his doppelganger and headed outside via the window, the Soul Candy added a salute and a small smile.

The fruits of Ichigo's training came to bear immediately as he concentrated the particles beneath his feet without even thinking about it. Recalling the events of that Saturday, he took a deep breath and began to concentrate again, trying to pinpoint Rukia's signature or summon up the Spirit Threads to follow.

Soon, he felt a host of presences in his 'field of view', as it were, but he ignored the vast majority, feeling no familiarity from them; eventually, he felt a thread tickle his hand, and he grasped it instinctively.

_KARIN_

Frowning, he opened his eyes, and saw that the thread was white, not red. However, he could sense…fear, frenetic and panicked, emanating from the thread.

_What's got her so worried, though…? Could it be from when she saw Chad's injuries? Would she have been able to feel the Hollow's Spiritual Pressure as well?_

With a sigh, he shook his head, put the thought aside and went back to concentrating.

_Sorry, Karin, but I've gotta find Kuchiki. If she's in trouble, then she needs my help._

He let go of her thread and concentrated again, but this time, he did his best to envision the cold feeling of Rukia's Spiritual Energy as he did.

The minute that followed might as well have been an hour, but in time, his work paid off; another thread brushed by him, and when he gripped it, he felt the cold that he'd been looking for.

Again, he opened his eyes; the red thread was leading him to the northwest, not too far from the house. Without further ado, Ichigo sprinted off, gripping the thread tighter as he did; the sensation was weaker than it should have been, and that was enough to make Ichigo worry.

* * *

**4:40 PM**

As it happened, Ichigo's instincts were dead-on; as he dropped down to the intersection where the 'accident' had occurred, he saw Rukia lying insensately on top of one of the cars, surrounded by the wrecks of another three vehicles.

"Kuchiki!" Ichigo roared, scrambling over to the car. "Dammit! Kuchiki, are you all right? Answer me!"

Feebly, Rukia sat up, her body shaking; it was at this point that Ichigo saw that part of her robe was torn away, and bleeding, revealing a burn mark similar to Chad's on her ribs. Similar injuries ran the span of her arms, and there was even one on her forehead, hidden beneath her hair.

"I was…taken by surprise," she whispered. "I…am such a fool."

"Don't worry about that now, Kuchiki," Ichigo said, scrambling up to the roof of the car to support her back with his hand before she hurt herself. "Tell me what happened and tell me where the hell that bastard Hollow got to!"

"I came to respond to the alert…but when I got here, the people were hurt, and it was gone. Or so I thought." Her eyes seemed to dim. "It was suppressing its Spiritual Energy to ambush me with a group of froglike creatures. They…spat leeches at me, and the Hollow blew them up remotely."

"And the Hollow?"

"It has retreated to Hueco Mundo, the world of Hollows." She coughed slightly, and Ichigo felt her begin to quiver even more. "Our Soul Phones will not register it until it moves into this plane to attack again."

Ichigo grimaced. "My friend, Chad. The big guy with the parakeet from today, do you remember him? He was injured here, too. I think the Hollow might have him in his sights for some reason. But you're in no shape to help me figure this out. Who do I need to call to get you evacuated to Soul Society or something for treatment?"

"Dial pound-004 on your phone to contact the Medical Extraction team. They will reach us on their own."

Ichigo did as he was told, frowning as he put the phone to his ear; moments later, a calm, motherly voice came over the line.

"_This is Captain Retsu Unohana of the Fourth Division. We have received your call for medical aid and will be dispatching a team to extract you shortly. Please hold."_

The phone disconnected automatically after that, and Ichigo re-focused on Rukia, who was now reclining again.

"I will most likely be replaced while I recuperate. I know that you are not familiar with many Reapers aside from me, but I must ask you to…try and cooperate. This is a serious matter."

"You don't have to tell me that." Despite himself, Ichigo's free hand clenched into a tight fist. "Doesn't matter who it is I've gotta work with. I'll kick that Hollow's ass!"

Rukia smiled thinly. "That is good…to hear."

They said no more until a Senkaimon opened nearby and two Reapers filed out to take Rukia away. As the small, black-haired Reaper was gently carried to the portal, she slowly raised her hand and extended a thumb.

"You can do it," she said, her voice hoarse and croaking. "I have taught you what you need to know. Just believe in yourself and do your duty!"

Ichigo, knowing that she must have gotten the expression from observing one of his friends, simply nodded, not trusting his voice.

"We will send her replacement out to you tomorrow," one of the Reapers said. "You will receive the relevant details on your Soul Phone tonight or in the morning. Be prepared."

With that, they passed into the Senkaimon, Hell Butterflies leading the way, and Ichigo looked around the site of the accident once more before sighing and beginning to make his way home.

* * *

**Monday, May 26th, 8:30 PM**

**Soul Society, Seireitei: First Division Barracks**

Prior to Rukia's return to Seireitei, things had been relatively calm amongst the Gotei 13, primarily due to the fact that nighttime was falling and that most Reapers were already on patrol in the Living World.

In fact, Captain-General Yamamoto was actually enjoying a nap in his offices—a real one, for once, not the false dozes that he often seemed to take in the middle of most unimportant situations. Of course, considering that there was no difference between his 'real' and 'fake' nap postures, it wouldn't have been a great stretch to mistake one for the other.

At any rate, his pleasant rest was disturbed when a Hell Butterfly drifted into his room and alighted on the top of his bald pate, transmitting its message automatically.

_Officer Rukia Kuchiki has been injured in the line of duty and is currently undergoing treatment at the Fourth Division barracks. If you could kindly come to see me, Captain-General, sir, I would appreciate it._

Yamamoto opened one of his eyes and sighed.

"Unohana…."

* * *

Within the next five minutes, Yamamoto found himself standing over Rukia's bed; thanks in no small part to the herbs and _Kidou_ techniques that had been used on her, the small Kuchiki was fast asleep.

The only other person in the room, aside from him and her, was Retsu Unohana herself, standing beside Yamamoto with her usual serene smile on her face.

"She will be fine, with rest," Unohana said, turning her head just slightly to face Yamamoto; as she did so, her hair, arranged into a braid tied around her neck and draped in front of her, lifted from her chest, but only slightly. "But now there is the matter of who will replace her, correct?"

Yamamoto leaned on his cane just a little bit more. "Yes. However, we cannot decide on that without knowing precisely who this enemy is. Sending someone whose rank is ill-suited to the task will only set us back further."

Unohana made a thoughtful humming sound, but said nothing, knowing that her superior, and former mentor, was now deep in thought.

"I have heard it said that Captain Hitsugaya's lieutenant tends to cause him some problems in terms of paperwork," Yamamoto said at last. "Perhaps doing some work outside of the office would be beneficial to helping her deal with that."

"Or it could provide an ample opportunity for her to continue slacking off."

Yamamoto shook his head before shifting his weight upwards. "She would not have become a Lieutenant if she were wholly incapable of serious work. I will assign her to be Kurosaki's mentor until Kuchiki recovers."

Unohana, despite her doubts, decided to let the matter rest.

"Very well, sir."

* * *

Moments later, a solitary Hell Butterfly fluttered out of the Fourth Division barracks and headed to the south, flying in a straight line. It took all of five minutes for the little messenger to reach the Tenth Division, nestled between the Eighth to the northeast and the Twelfth to the southwest; from there, it fluttered through the courtyard and into the main building, taking numerous twists and turns that eventually led it to the office of Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto.

The office in question was rather…unorganized, to put it politely. Papers and pens were strewn carelessly all over the floor, with a bottle or two of cheap rice wine hidden under the piles. Rangiku's desk was covered with papers as well, and behind two particularly tall stacks of them, the redheaded woman herself was fast asleep, drooling on the desk where she'd passed out after attempting to do paperwork for the better half of the day.

The Hell Butterfly ignored all of the mess and went straight for her hands, which were crossed and nestled under her chin. As soon as it touched down, Yamamoto's voice projected itself directly into her mind.

_Lieutenant Matsumoto. You are to report to the coordinates sent to your Soul Phone by 8:00 AM. This is a mission of grave importance, regarding our newest Deputy Reaper. Do not be late._

The booming tones of the Captain-General's speech caused Rangiku to awaken violently, jerking her head and most of her upper body to attention. Unfortunately, this also caused her to hit her knee on the desk's underside, which in turn caused her to fall backwards with a loud, pained yelp.

"Dammit! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

After taking a moment to recover, she rubbed the growing lump on top of her head and pouted at the Hell Butterfly, then adjusted the pink scarf that was over her shoulders, leaving her noticeable cleavage, and the necklace that ran down into it, still exposed as always.

"Couldn't you have waited until the morning?" she muttered. "You little guys are so annoying sometimes."

A sudden buzzing sound—the vibration of her Soul Phone—cut off her complaining, and she quickly dropped to the ground on all fours, looking for it in a somewhat sober but still noticeably drunken fashion; when she finally laid hands on it, she smiled in triumph and pulled it from the pile of papers it was buried beneath, grinning broadly as she looked at the coordinates and at a picture of Ichigo that had been taken for his official "Deputy Reaper" file a few days back.

Despite herself (or perhaps because of the alcohol), Rangiku squealed in excitement. "Ooh, he's a cutie. Too bad he's still a bit young for me or I would just eat him up! Oh, well. We'll have plenty of time to get acquainted tomorrow!"

Her joy rapidly faded, though, when she heard an all-too familiar rustling of papers above her head; she looked up, and to her horror, the pile of paper that she'd just pulled her phone out of was wobbling towards her ominously.

"Hey, hey, wait! Wait! Wait~!"

The pleas for time soon morphed into a shriek as the sound of a veritable flood of paper rushed through the room.

"Oh…such a mess…Captain Hitsugaya's going to freeze me to the desk tomorrow…."

* * *

**Tuesday, May 26th, 9:30 AM**

**Karakura****High School****, Class 1-3**

By all intents and appearances, that Tuesday was going to be more or less the same as every other Tuesday that Class 1-3 went through; literature in the morning and mathematics after lunch.

The only oddities that Misato Ochi noticed as she began to run through the roll call was the absence of two students—Ichigo Kurosaki and Yasutora Sado. She'd asked their friends if they had heard anything from either young man, but she knew that they both did their school-related duties well enough to not be too worried about it.

"Probably just a stomach bug at worst," she said to herself. "All right, kids! Let's get started with literature!"

Of course, the truth behind Ichigo's absence was not that simple to explain. The fact of the matter was that he'd made it just right to the gate of school, with no one else around, when Rangiku spotted him, and decided to make her introductions.

And in her usual style, her "introduction" was rather impressive; she jumped from the top of the gate right as he pulled up, landing spectacularly in front of him.

"Hey there! You're Ichigo Kurosaki, right?" she said, grinning cheerfully as she stood up. "Nice to meet ya! I'm Lieutenant of the Tenth Squad, the sexy and crazy awesome Rangiku Matsumoto! I'll be helping you out for a while!"

Of course, her already-loose clothes shifted around ever so slightly as she straightened up, and the sight of her bouncing cleavage, in concert with the impact of her landing, caused Ichigo to fall off of his bike and all but split his head neatly in two.

"…OK, my bad…. Do you need a little help there, hon?"

Ichigo scrambled to his feet, a vein pulsing on his forehead as he pointed a trembling finger at her. "What the hell kind of entrance was that? And what's with that clothing—were you trying to give me a heart attack on purpose or something? Dammit!"

Rangiku blinked. "What's wrong with my clothes? Are you trying to imply that I don't dress stylishly?"

"You dress like a…a streetwalker…or, or something! Seriously, look at yourself; why would you even go outside looking like that?"

"Oh, Ichigo-kun, now you're just being silly." She draped an arm over his shoulder and smiled sweetly for a moment, before her face grew sterner, almost instantly. "Now, why don't we go take care of this Hollow problem? You do realize that right now you're ranting to the empty air—or at least that's what it looks like to the normal people around us."

Ichigo's face became serious as well (if a bit embarrassed, as his flaming cheeks proved) as she broached the subject, and he nodded, quickly getting back onto his bike and riding off with Rangiku following closely behind, keeping pace easily.

Once they reached a quiet alley near the school, he stopped riding and turned towards Rangiku.

"Now, why don't you explain to me what's going on with this Hollow, Ichigo-kun?"

Ichigo quickly summarized the events of the previous day, taking extra care to point out how Rukia had been attacked at the same place where Chad had been hurt, and the unusual dual-soul nature of Chad's parakeet.

"…so, your suspicion is that the parakeet and the Hollow might be somehow related?" Rangiku asked, rubbing her chin and barely covering the beauty mark under the right side of her mouth. "That could be possible. Hollows are capable of separating the souls of living beings from their bodies on their own. "

Ichigo remembered what had happened to Orihime when her brother attacked her, and realized that that was what Rangiku was talking about. "Yeah…the only thing is that I have no idea where Chad is now. Dad said that the bed where we left him was empty this morning, but I don't know if he went to class…."

He groaned suddenly as he realized what he'd just said.

"I should've checked my homeroom before I went riding all the way over here!" he said, growling in frustration. "It'll look suspicious if I come in late just to leave again, and I can't come up with a half-decent lie to go home and keep it all straight if the school checks up on it…."

"You did say that you noticed the Spiritual Energy signature of the bird, didn't you…?" Rangiku clapped her hands together, beaming broadly. "I have an idea! Can you summon Spirit Threads?"

"Yeah…." Ichigo's eyes widened. "Yeah! I see what you're getting at now! Summon the thread and find the bird, right? Then I'll find Chad, and we can get the Hollow when it shows up to get him again!"

He closed his eyes and began to concentrate intensely, trying to remember the feeling of the bird's unique signature. He soon felt his skin buzz, and knew instinctively that he was now surrounded by tons of Spirit Threads; however, he didn't sense the signature he wanted just yet, and tightened both his fists as he attempted to draw the proper signature out.

Then, he felt it—emanating from just above him. He reached up and grabbed the thread and was satisfied to hear a familiar name and feel the familiar impression all at once.

_YUUICHI SHIBATA_

"I've got him! Let's go!"

Rangiku nodded, her gray eyes gaining a solemn light as Ichigo hopped onto his bike.

* * *

In the shadows of an abandoned warehouse, Chad leaned against a wall and sighed, wincing as he accidentally pressed his wound just a little too tightly against the surface behind him.

From his perch, the parakeet sighed and looked up wistfully at Chad. "Mister, I'm so sorry. I've dragged you into this mess to help out my mom, even though you can't even see the monster after me…. And now you're hurt because of it."

Chad put a hand on his forehead and sighed, though there was a deliberate calmness in the action that proved he was not frustrated about his current situation. "I'm tough. I'll be fine."

The wall behind him began to shake suddenly, and he grunted in frustration as he rolled forward, with the birdcage still clutched in his hands, when the wall exploded. As he broke into a run, he felt the small coin he wore on the chain around his neck bounce against his chest, and he remembered the smile of the kind old man that had made him who he was today.

_Abuelo…I remember what you told me. I remember…that my strength is meant to protect. So…I'll protect this parakeet. I'll help him…save his mother, no matter what!_

As Chad dashed out onto the street from the warehouse, he ran into Ichigo and Rangiku, who were headed directly towards him on bike and foot. Of course, Chad couldn't see Rangiku, but his focus was so singular that he barely recognized Ichigo before he began to dash off in the other direction.

"Dammit, Chad! Cut that out!" Ichigo yelled. "Why are you running, you…."

Before he and Rangiku could continue to give chase, a familiar girl's voice cut into his thoughts.

"Ichigo…. Ichi-nii…!"

Frowning, Ichigo turned around, but soon his scowl became an expression of blank shock.

Karin was leaning against a lamppost, sweating and pale; she managed to take one slow, stumbling step towards Ichigo before she fell flat on her side, gasping and wheezing for air. Shouting her name, Ichigo let his bike drop to the ground as he rushed to her side.

Rangiku cast a stern glance at Karin, then towards Chad's retreating back. "'Ichi-nii'…is she your sister?"

"Yeah. But I don't know what she's doing here…."

"Take her home, or someplace safe, then. We can't have her get caught up in this, too. I'll keep chasing Chad-kun."

"That thing took down Kuchiki pretty handily, you know, Katsumoto-san," Ichigo said as he picked up Karin. "Are you sure?"

Rangiku sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "First off, my name is Matsumoto, Ichigo-kun. If you won't call me Rangiku, at least get that part right. And we don't have time to discuss this! Get back on that bike and get going, now! I'm not going to say that Kuchiki-san was weak, but realistically speaking, as a Lieutenant I am at the very least as strong as her, if not stronger. I'll be fine. Get your sister to safety and then come back here!"

Ichigo didn't look convinced, but the way Rangiku was urging him on overrode his instinct to ignore her orders, and he gently shook Karin.

"Hey, Karin…I need you to grab hold of me as tight as you can, all right? I need to hold the handlebars."

Wordlessly, Karin complied, wrapping her arms under his armpits and her legs around his stomach; slowly, Ichigo stood his bike up and pedaled off towards home. However, before Rangiku disappeared in the blur of Flash Steps to catch Chad, she heard Ichigo call out to her one more time.

"That thing hurt one of my partners already. Don't be number two, all right?"

"Of course not, cutie," Rangiku replied under her breath, smiling sweetly.

Naturally, Ichigo heard none of that, primarily due to his attention being on getting back to the house to leave Karin in safety. Karin herself was the one to break this concentration as she spoke to him in a harsh, grating whisper.

"Ichi-nii…that boy…in the parakeet…his memories…his memories are bouncing around in my head. When I saw him…it just happened. I don't know why…but I remember one thing more than anything else. He saw his mother die…right in front of him. She was murdered, Ichi-nii, murdered!"

She began to shake, sending a sick feeling through Ichigo's body as she continued talking, the words spilling out between hiccups and sobs.

"Please…Ichi-nii…you have to do something. Save him, somehow…please! Get him to the other side so he can see his mother again!"

Ichigo couldn't find the words to speak in the face of her despair, primarily because he knew just why she was taking all of this so personally.

_She hasn't been like this since Mom died. She's been doing her best to be strong, to keep her own pain locked up behind the toughness and the wisecracks. But this…this is the same as the pain she felt then…and it's killing her to see someone else endure it. Someone as tough as her, brought to tears by this…_

His grip on the handlebars tightened.

"This just got_very_ personal."

* * *

With her superior speed, Rangiku knew that keeping up with Chad would be no problem even if she forswore the use of Flash Steps, and she was right on the money; after the initial burst of speed to catch up, she was able to drop the technique and keep pace with him simply by striding.

Remembering what Ichigo said about the bird's ability to see Rukia, Rangiku took the opportunity to try and get Chad to hold still so that she could engage the Hollow without being in transit.

"Hey, bird!" she yelled, pulling just ahead of Chad a little bit. "Tell him to stop running! He's got help now!"

The parakeet-boy blinked and cocked his head. "Huh? Who are you?"

"I'm the help! But I can't do anything if this big lug won't quit running away! And he can't see me, so you need to tell him to stop for me, OK? Do it now!"

Nodding, the bird looked towards Chad. "Mister, Mister! There's an invisible lady in black that says she can help! But she needs you to stop running away!"

Chad's steps gradually slowed, in part because of his confusion and in part because he was attempting to listen to the bird's words. Of course, it suited Rangiku just fine either way; her Soul Phone went off moments after Chad's stride had come to a complete halt, and she could sense the Hollow's Spiritual Energy growing behind her—and above her. Without hesitation, she reached behind her back and pulled her _zanpakutou _around to her side, revealing its guard, which resembled a narrowed-down cat's head with a tapered bottom, before she drew it.

"Let's see what the little guy's capable of first," she murmured. "Then I'll cut him to bits."

True to what she subconsciously predicted, the Hollow descended from the skies above her, though whatever element of surprise it'd intended to gain was lost by the fact that he was now facing a fully prepared Rangiku.

Much like all of the other Hollows, the one targeting Chad had a resemblance to an animal of some sort. His skin was gray, and brown fur ringed his neck and ran horizontally around his ribs. The undersides of his forearms were graced with bat-like wings, which folded up as it landed on the ground. Its mask had two round holes for its eyes and a pair of triangles for 'nostrils', with two small, somewhat rectangular plates extending up above the eyes. Its Hollow hole sat right in the center of its chest.

"**I got lucky today…Ran into a very sexy Reaper, I see,"** it said, its male voice low and rumbling. **"I'll have lots of fun gobbling you up like the other two idiots that your kind sent after me!"**

"I would like to point out that you didn't manage to do that when you attacked one of my fellow Reapers yesterday," Rangiku replied, her voice cold. "And I doubt quite fully that you'll be able to even as much as touch me."

The Hollow flexed its wings menacingly, the grin of its mask becoming quite threatening even though it hadn't changed shape in the slightest. **"We'll see about that!"**

Rangiku tensed suddenly as a number of smaller spiritual signatures brushed across her senses. She looked around using her eyes only and saw that she, Chad, and the parakeet were all surrounded by a group of spotted, froglike Hollows.

"Oh, ho, I see how you do this," she said with an even colder smile. "Well, mister coward. Bring all the little friends you like. I'll crush them all."

The Hollow snorted, and the frogs jumped forward in unison. Their heads split open along a line that ran down their forehead, and spat out leeches as they advanced. Rangiku evaded the projectiles and sliced one of the frogs as it jumped in her way; leeches burst from the carcass and splattered all over her, sticking fast.

The Hollow laughed darkly, crouched lower to the ground, and opened his mouth, revealing its tongue; the fleshy organ had an oddly-shaped hole that split its tip into two parts. **"I've got ya now! Take this!"**

A trilling whistle came from the tongue, and the leeches attached to Rangiku exploded violently, opening cuts and gashes all over her body. Crying out in pain, she dropped to the concrete on one knee and clutched at her bicep, just above one of her new injuries.

Though he couldn't see anything, Chad felt extremely uneasy.

"Yuuichi," he said. "What's happening…? I can't see."

"The lady that said she was going to help just got hurt by the monster chasing us," the parakeet replied, his voice downcast. "But you can't run, either. If you do, we'll get hurt. The monster's friends have bombs inside of them and they'll hurt us if we try to get away."

Despite the oddity of the situation he was already in, Chad couldn't help but feel a nugget of doubt about that—doubt which disappeared when he felt several weights on his back that forced him to the ground, causing him to drop the birdcage on the ground.

Yuuichi squawked a bit as his cage rolled, until one of the Hollow's minions stopped it and set it upright, sitting on top of it to keep watch. Alarmed, Yuuichi looked over to Chad, and almost cried in dismay; the large boy was being smothered by several of the Hollow's allies.

"Mister, don't move! The Hollow's friends are all over you! And they've got me, too!"

From where she was crouched down, Rangiku looked over to Chad and Yuuichi before returning her attention to the hollow, her teeth drawn into a feral snarl.

"Remote bombs…and taking the boy hostage!" she whispered, resisting the urge to punch a hole in the concrete. "He really is a coward!"

"**That was a nice scream, lady," **the Hollow said, flexing its wings with a laugh. **"I liked it a lot. Let's hear some more outta ya!"**

The frogs advanced again, but before Rangiku could start thinking of a plan to get out of the situation, the loud sliding skid of bike tires on the concrete echoed throughout the area and down the street.

With a sly smile, Rangiku gathered Spiritual Energy into her left hand and converted it into Spiritual Pressure, causing yellow light to burst into being in her palm; the cavalry was on his way in, and all he needed was a second to get ready

"_Bakudou_ number 4: Crawling Rope!" she yelled, thrusting her hand forward.

The light shot forward and formed into a ribbon of energy that wrapped tightly around the Hollow's arms and pressed them to its body. As it struggled to move, Ichigo, exactly as Rangiku predicted, came around the corner, skidding to a stop. When his momentum had stopped entirely, he let his bike fall to the ground and gripped the badge in his hand tightly.

Chad blinked in confusion. "…Kurosaki?"

"No time to explain now, Chad," Ichigo replied. "Just do me a favor—when I pass out, take my body somewhere nearby and keep it safe for me, OK?"

Before Chad could ask what he meant, Ichigo forced Spiritual Energy into the badge; immediately, he was ejected from his body, and with a single leap, he flung himself at the Hollow. More of the frogs moved to intercept him, spitting leeches as if they were bullets from a machinegun.

"Ichigo-kun, don't let those leeches touch you!" Rangiku said, still gripping the energy rope in her left hand. "This little bastard can make them blow up if he whistles through his tongue!"

Without batting an eye, Ichigo swung at all of the leeches that came close to him, cutting them before they even got a chance to attach themselves. When his motion carried him into striking range of the Hollow, he put both hands onto his blade and slashed downwards with a triumphant yell, lopping off one of its arms with ease.

While the Hollow shrieked in agony, Ichigo hustled over to the birdcage, picked up the Hollow minion on top of it, and tossed it down the street with ease.

"Kid!" he said to the parakeet-boy. "Tell Chad to toss those bastards off! You're safe!'

Yuuichi nodded. "Mister! I'm safe now! Get up! Throw them off!"

With an affirmative grunt, Chad forced himself upwards, freeing himself effortlessly. He then hustled over to the birdcage and picked Yuuichi up.

"Now tell him to grab my body and take it somewhere safe while I deal with this guy!"

Yuuichi did so, and though Chad's puzzled frown told them both all they needed to know about his current state of mind, the large young man dashed towards Ichigo's unconscious body, hefted it over his shoulder, and continued to run back the way Ichigo had just arrived, taking a left at the first street he came to and moving out of sight.

Ichigo watched him go with a relieved sigh, flicked the blood from his blade, and moved to stand next to Rangiku.

"Hey, you all right, Natsumoto?"

Rangiku pouted and shook her head. "Ichigo-kun, just call me Rangiku. Please? If you keep butchering my name you're going to break my heart."

"OK, whatever, Rangiku. Answer my question, please?"

"I'm fine, Ichigo-kun. But we need to deal with this charming fellow here first." She jerked her head towards the injured Hollow, which was still bound by her _Kidou_ spell. "Would you like to do the honors, or shall I?"

Ichigo grinned wolfishly. "I don't see any reason why we can't share the job!"

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Yeah, I know. I'm kind of gypping Chad here as compared to what happened in the actual storyline, but I promise you that he will get his chance to shine. As earlier chapters have (hopefully) shown, I am trying to avoid a straight re-hash of every single thing that happened in the original story, because if that's what you wanted to see, then you'd be reading or watching Bleach instead of this, right?_

_I've opened up a forum for anyone interested in discussing Substitute School related stuff. Go to my profile and click on "My Forums" up at the top to go take a look-see. Make a few posts, tell all your friends, the whole nine yards. Just make sure to check out the rules!_

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_Bakudou: literally, Way of Binding, one of the four schools of Kidou._

_OK, that's all from me. See you next class._

_~ZS_


	6. Lesson 6: Spiritual Strata 101

_Substitute__ School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 6: Spiritual Strata 101, or All Souls Don't Go To Soul Society_

* * *

**Tuesday, May 26th, 10:05 AM**

**Karakura**** Town**

The scene would have been right at home in some sort of bizarre action movie. Ichigo and Rangiku stood tall, their blades ready in their right hands; the Hollow, still entangled in the _Crawling Rope_ spell that Rangiku was maintaining with her left hand, struggled feebly, still reeling from the loss of one of his arms earlier.

Despite her strong front, Rangiku couldn't help but wince once or twice as her breathing agitated her wounds from earlier. Ichigo saw this from the corner of his eye and frowned, then slowly walked up to the Hollow and put his blade to its neck. "All right, you jackass. I've got a few questions for ya. First off. The boy inside of that parakeet. Did you do that to him? And did you kill his mother?"

"**Correct-a-mundo,"** the Hollow replied with a chuckle. **"The little bastard got in the way of one of my kills back when I was alive and kicking. His stupid mom was trying to protect him from me, and after I gave her a few good pokes with my trusty knife, I was just about ready to finish the job…until he grabbed my laces and made me fall off a balcony. I was pissed as hell at him, but I didn't know how to pay him back—until I turned into this thing! When I got the chance, I stuffed his soul into the parakeet, and told him that if he could run away from me long enough, I'd bring his mom back to life!"**

He shook his head and chuckled, though there was only frustration and no mirth in the gesture.

"And I'm guessing that you actually can't do what you promised, right?"

Ichigo wasn't asking the question out of genuine curiosity; Rukia's chastisements aside, he was well aware that the dead were dead, past a certain point. The boy's mother had been beyond salvation for some time, and was either bound to where she'd been killed due to her regrets or had passed on to Soul Society.

He only asked to confirm that the Hollow was really and truly a rotten bastard through and through.

He wasn't disappointed.

"**Of course I can't, idiot! Really, this was all about my revenge! 'Sawada the Stabber', famed serial killer extraordinaire, got killed because of a snot-nosed brat!"**

Ichigo's blade inched closer to the Hollow's throat. "Is that so? Sounds like a real sad story, clown. Too bad I've got no sympathy for dirty murderers!"

The Hollow laughed again, exposing its tongue; when this happened, Ichigo saw it begin to trill slightly, and suddenly remembered how the beast had gotten the drop on every opponent it had faced thus far. With a wicked grin, the boy lashed his right hand out, grabbed the tongue, and ripped it out in a single motion.

"Whoops." Ichigo shrugged, and though he looked plenty sorry, his smile betrayed precisely how he really felt. "Sorry. I guess I got a little paranoid, seeing that nasty thing you call a tongue slip out again. Especially since someone like you would be more than happy to get a few dozen leeches on me and my partner here and then blow us to bits."

"**Bashtard!" **the Hollow screamed, its speech slurred by the loss of its tongue. **"I'hll kill you!"**

It began to move its remaining arm out of Rangiku's binding, but Ichigo precluded any action on its part by tightening his grip on the tongue and punching the Hollow dead in the mouth, breaking most of its teeth in the process.

"**Aah…! Monshter!"**

Ichigo slowly pulled his hand out of the Hollow's shattered mouth, shook it off, and gripped his _zanpakutou _with both hands again.

"Oh, so I'm the monster? No, I don't think so. You, on the other hand…you murdered people, enjoyed it, and lied to a little kid just so that you could get a few jollies out of hunting him like a dog. Now, all that fear you're feeling? It's exactly what your victims felt, each and every one of them, and you can die in fear the way they did!"

With a roar, Ichigo lifted his blade high and sliced down in a single vertical stroke, cleaving the Hollow from head to pelvis.

The moment the sword passed all the way through the Hollow's body, a flash of jagged energy came up from the massive wound and flared into the sky.

Ichigo's expression went from ferocity to confusion in the space of a heartbeat. "What—what the hell is that?"

Rangiku, no longer needing to hold the Crawling Rope spell, loosened her left hand, allowing the _Kidou_ to disperse.

"The gates of Hell," she said, watching impassively as a massive pair of doors formed in front of them; the shaft of light was now serving as the space between the huge portals. "You heard that pleasant fellow. He was a serial killer when he was a Human, and our_zanpakutou _only purify a Hollow of a Hollow's sins. Bastards like him…they get to burn."

Once the doors fully formed, Ichigo could see that four chains kept the doors locked, and that a pair of half-skeletons were posted on each side of the door. As Ichigo and Rangiku watched, the chains themselves broke and the skeletons pulled the doors open.

From there, everything happened so quickly that Ichigo barely registered the events as they happened. He saw a pair of ropes, draped across the entire span of the door, with numerous charms attached to them. Then, a large hand, covered in armor and holding a blade, thrust out of the gate and skewered the Hollow on the spot, causing its body to break up as a deep, rumbling laugh rocked Ichigo from head to toe.

The arm then withdrew as quickly as it had arrived, taking the Hollow with it, and the gates slammed shut before dissolving into black shards that drifted away on an ominously cold wind. The leech-spitting Hollows simply froze in place and gradually dissolved, leaving white particles to mix in with the shards.

After a few more moments of silence, Ichigo said, looking up into the sky, "Now for Chad and the kid."

"Do you have a Memory Modifier?" Rangiku asked, gingerly touching one of the leech-inflicted wounds. "I have one, but in this body I can't use it on someone that's conscious. I'd need a Gigai."

Ichigo nodded. "Yeah, I've got one. Rukia sent me back with it a few days after I purified a Hollow that was attacking another friend of mine, and I picked it up from my room when I went home with Karin." He paused, and his eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "Wait, what's a Gigai?"

Rangiku smiled and shook her head. "Not important now! Gotta go take care of the parakeet, right? Come on! Let's go, stop wasting time!"

With that, she trotted off in the direction that Chad had gone with Ichigo's body, humming a merry ditty. After scowling in puzzlement after her, Ichigo followed suit.

* * *

They found Chad leaning against a fence, one large hand rested on top of the birdcage that he'd carried so carefully for the last twenty-four hours or so. Ichigo's body was propped up beside him, with no harm done. Nonchalantly, Ichigo touched his body's hand, and was instantly sucked into it again; after blinking away the rush of dizziness that came with re-entering his body, he stood up and dusted himself off.

"OK, kid. We took care of that jerk Hollow for you," Ichigo said to the parakeet, rubbing a sore muscle in his shoulder. "Now we've got to send you off to Soul Society."

The parakeet bowed its head. "But…my mom…."

"He was lying to you. He wouldn't have been able to bring her back."

The bird-boy seemed to shrink in on himself, and Ichigo sighed as he crouched down to the ground and looked the parakeet in the eyes.

"Listen. My friend in the black robes is going to send you to this place called Soul Society. It'll be…an interesting place. But…if you go, you'll be able to find your mother again. OK?"

The bird seemed hesitant at first, but eventually nodded his understanding. "OK." He then turned to Chad and let out a gentle chirp. "Mister. Thanks for keeping me safe. Because of you I didn't get hurt at all."

Chad slowly shook his head. "It was nothing."

"Really, thanks so much!"

Rangiku bent down as well, and pushed the hilt of her _zanpakutou _through the bars of the cage, but stopped when she saw Chad adjust himself a little bit.

"…Yuuichi."

"Yes, mister?" the bird said.

"When I die…and go to that Soul Society place. Is it all right if I carry you around again?"

The bird nodded, and flapped its wings just slightly. "Of course!"

Chad smiled, and leaned back again. "Do what you have to do, Ichigo."

Rangiku pressed the hilt to Yuuichi's forehead, and as the boy's soul was driven out of the parakeet and a Hell Butterfly created from the ritual of Soul Burial, Ichigo took the Memory Modifier out of his pocket and let it go off in Chad's face. Ichigo's friend stiffened, but only momentarily; he soon relaxed, and fell asleep.

Rangiku stood up and reached upwards; as if called by something, the Hell Butterfly came down to alight on her hand. With a smile, she looked down at the insect, and then turned towards Ichigo.

"All right, Ichigo-kun. It looks like it's time for me to go. Sorry that you had to miss school and everything for this, but duty is duty, you know?"

Ichigo looked down at Chad, then at the parakeet, which was now much less attentive to him and more focused on its surroundings. "Yeah. I understand."

The frown on his face was more than enough to give Rangiku pause. "What's wrong with you? You sound all depressed and down-in-the-dumps."

"Captain Ukitake told me what happens when souls are sent to Soul Society," he said. "All of it."

The words, the memory, echoed in Ichigo's mind plain as day.

* * *

"_The nature of Soul Society is such that spirits which arrive here can arrive in any of the Rukongai districts at any time. Added to the sheer size of Soul Society itself, poor records of whom occupies what areas, and the gradual decay of a soul's memory of its living life, reunions of family, or even trying to find one specific person, are few and far between."_

* * *

Ichigo felt his hands clench into quivering masses of muscle and bone. "I lied to that kid just now. I feel like I can't forgive myself for it either, but if I'd told him the truth, then what would have happened? Would it have been worse?"

Rangiku's smile faded into sober, reflective neutrality, and Ichigo wondered, not for the first time, just how it was she managed to switch moods so quickly all the time.

"Ichigo-kun. You did the right thing. You've given him a reason to live, and keep on living—and that reason is 'Find Mom'."

She looked down at the butterfly again, and sighed, remembering a hazy vision of blue skies, oppressive, dry heat, and pale, thin clouds.

"Trust me. That alone will take him very, very far in Rukongai."

Ichigo scowled and shook his head in annoyance. "Even if that's true…. I still feel like the bad guy. But…really, there wasn't much else I could do, was there."

She put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it, in a gentle, motherly way. "There wasn't. So don't blame yourself so much, OK? I'm sure he'll make it through."

At length, Ichigo finally looked towards her, and nodded shortly, his expression less annoyed-looking but still faraway.

"Yeah. I guess. And how about you? You're going to go straight to the medics when you get back?"

"After I file my report with Captain Hitsugaya, that's the plan. And then, once they clear me and I'm all healed up, I'm going to go hit the taverns!"

Ichigo blinked.

"What?"

"Nothing like a hard night's drink to go with a hard day's work!" Rangiku said eagerly, nodding rapidly. "It's the best feeling in the world! And if I get Kiyone-chan to go with me then I won't have to pick up the tab either!"

"Whoa, whoa, what? Kiyone…um, dammit, what was her last name…Rougetsu, I think…from the Thirteenth Division? She's your drinking buddy?"

"Her last name is Kotetsu, Ichigo-kun, and yes, she is. One of my BEST drinking buddies, in fact! We go out all the time after work! It's wonderful! One of these days you'll have to come along!"

"…Um, I'll pass."

Rangiku pouted, marking a full departure from her unusual seriousness. "You're no fun, Ichigo-kun!"

* * *

After Rangiku's departure, Ichigo had been left to his own devices for a considerable amount of time. Of course, being the great brother that he was, his first thought was of Karin, and so he pedaled home rapidly to make sure that she was all right.

Luckily, his father was still out of the house, and Yuzu was still at school, so Ichigo was able to sit down and come up with a decent excuse for his absence from school—his story was that Karin had managed to get home from her school and call him to tell him that she was feeling sick—so he'd come home to make sure that she was going to be OK.

Before he'd gone to take a midday nap, though, Karin had called him into her room and given him a tight hug the likes of which she'd never done for him before.

"Thank you, Ichi-nii," she whispered, "for helping that boy so quickly. You really did a good job."

Despite the small stab of guilt he felt over Yuuichi's possible fate, Ichigo managed to keep his voice even and cool.

"Was there ever any doubt?"

* * *

**Wednesday, May 27th, 12:30 PM**

**Karakura**** High School, Rooftop**

It was lunchtime at Karakura High yet again, and things were relatively peaceful for Ichigo, Keigo, Mizuiro, and Chad as they hung out on the roof together, simply enjoying lunch in each other's company. Chad had brought along his parakeet, but now that it was divested of Yuuichi's soul, it spoke without much human qualities, garbling together most of the phrases Keigo told it to say. Of course, thanks to the Memory Modifier, Chad didn't know why this was the case, and said, when questioned about the bird's sudden change by Keigo, "I woke up this morning and he was that way."

In fact, Keigo was in the middle of rejoicing quite loudly (somehow, he'd gotten the bird to say the name of famous actor Tadanobu Asano instead of Keigo Asano) when Ichigo seemed to choke on the rice he was chewing. Alarmed, Keigo quickly ran over to Ichigo and pounded his back until Ichigo finally stopped coughing and smacked Keigo's head in annoyance.

"Not so hard, dumbass! Are you trying to break my back or something?"

"Well excuse me for trying to help, ya dick-weed," Keigo muttered, his voice muffled due to the fact that his face was planted quite solidly into the rooftop.

"Are you all right, Ichigo?" Mizuiro asked. "What happened?"

"Food just went down the wrong way, that's all. I'm fine."

Of course, the real reason for his sudden surprise was the short, black-haired Soul Reaper that was standing right next to Mizuiro with her arms crossed, clearly displaying the bandages swathed around her forearms.

"Why, Kurosaki-san. I had no idea you missed me that much. I am flattered."

As Mizuiro turned his attention back towards a now-recovered Keigo, Rukia smiled and nodded.

"I heard from Matsumoto-san about how you dispatched the Hollow. Well done. I am sorry I could not witness it myself, but I am glad to see my faith in you is well-placed."

She moved to stand behind Ichigo, and looked on at his friends, raising a confused eyebrow at Keigo's continued antics with the parakeet before sighing, shrugging it off, and continuing.

"Of course, none of my pride in your accomplishments means that training will be any easier for you today. In fact, I think that today we will be spending quite a bit of time with the energy sphere before we move to sparring in midair again for the rest of our session, and for all of our sessions afterward. Then, another session with the energy sphere, and…."

As she went on, Ichigo felt his shoulders slump. Though he couldn't quite explain why, he also felt a dull throbbing on the top of his head and just above his ribcage, and the urge to go hide in a corner.

"God **damn** it."

* * *

**8:30 PM**

**Soul Society, Seireitei: The Kuchiki Manor**

Rukia sighed as she exchanged her sandals and socks for a pair of house slippers brought to her by a servant. Her body, despite the very deliberate poise and grace she was carrying herself with, was sore and stiff from training with Ichigo. He had truly begun to acclimate to combat, and though he couldn't exactly keep pace with her at her top speed, he was beginning to get the rudimentary basics of sensing her position and adjusting to block accordingly, via sensing her Spiritual Energy.

His control of his Spiritual Energy remained, at best, mediocre. Half the time the sphere was still too dark when he put his energy into it, even with the armband, and he had assured her repeatedly that he was putting all of his effort into controlling himself. Since he wasn't good enough at lying to lie to her, and since he was too stupidly straightforward to even consider doing it anyway, she had to take him at his word.

"Perhaps I will need to take him to see Captain Kurotsuchi," she said, shaking her head as she made her way to her room. "I had been hoping to avoid it, but the armband is not enough, it seems."

As she came to her door, a female servant came out of the room; startled, the woman stopped short, bowing hastily. "Kuchiki-sama, the bath has been drawn. You may enter at your leisure."

Rukia nodded as the servant then stepped aside to let her in. "Thank you."

Without any other words, the servant departed, and Rukia went into her wardrobe to choose what she would wear to dinner with her brother that night.

Within the half hour, Rukia had finished her bath, changed from her Reaper's robes into a slightly more formal set, and made her way to the dining room. As was customary at this time, the large hall was empty; only Byakuya sat at the small, personal table that he had set aside for him and any guests he wished to speak to one-on-one.

Rukia crossed the span of the hall to stand at the other side of the table, and bowed to her seated brother before taking her seat opposite him, placing her hands on her lap.

"My apologies, onii-sama. My training with Kurosaki-san ran longer than I was expecting it to today."

Byakuya opened his eyes and looked downwards slightly, regarding Rukia with his normal stoicism. "That is fine."

Cowed into silence by his gaze, Rukia simply nodded, and they said nothing to each other until after a servant emerged from the kitchen with chopsticks and a few pieces of grilled salmon.

"Speaking of that matter. How is it progressing?"

At first, Rukia couldn't quite place what he was talking about, but she caught on quickly enough and kept her confusion well-hidden. "Kurosaki-san is definitely rough around the edges, and I still cannot help but think he would do better if he was actually having formal education at the Academy. Despite that, he works very diligently at what he does, and I think he has the potential to be a great Reaper."

Byakuya took his chopsticks up in one smooth motion and lifted a piece of the salmon to his mouth, chewing quietly. After swallowing, he asked, "May I ask where exactly he was at the time you were injured?"

Rukia flinched and briefly considered putting food into her mouth to avoid answering that question. She'd had a feeling that Byakuya was displeased about her brush with the winged Hollow. This was his first time actually speaking about it with her, but she knew her brother well enough to know when he was annoyed or troubled by something; the way he had asked the question, in an even softer tone of voice, proved that he was not happy at all. Worse, telling him the truth about why Ichigo hadn't intervened to help her out would only sour him to the boy more. Byakuya hated nothing more than someone being derelict in their duties.

Regardless of her feelings, she had no choice in the matter. One did not lie to the head of the Kuchiki family and get away with it.

"He was on his way home," she said, silently cursing what she was going to say next. "At the time he was not aware of his Soul Phone or his Substitute Soul Reaper Badge reacting to the Hollow's presence. A friend of his was injured by the Hollow, however, and that was how he knew to come searching for me."

Her face began to flush slightly, and she ate a piece of salmon to try and hide her growing feelings of shame and nervousness.

"I see. And the Hollow?"

"Dead. Kurosaki-san received help from Lieutenant Matsumoto while I was indisposed and they took care of the Hollow together."

"I presume that he was the one to purify it?"

"Yes."

Silence again. Byakuya simply took more food and continued to eat, leaving Rukia to stew, sweat, and barely succeed at keeping herself composed. This pattern continued for a while, though Rukia eventually managed to start eating now and then to keep up appearances.

Eventually, Byakuya stopped eating and simply watched Rukia for a time, his gray-blue eyes still sobering and calm.

Of course, this had the opposite effect on Rukia, who could practically feel the manners and more formal speaking diction instilled in her by years of living as a Kuchiki ebbing away.

_What does he want from me? Is he waiting for me to screw up so he can scold me? Dammit, this is ridiculous! Why doesn't he just speak his mind already?_

At length, Byakuya spoke again. "Rukia."

Rukia managed to keep her tone of voice appropriately civil, though her hands were clearly shaking in fear of rebuke at this point. "Yes, onii-sama?"

"Continue to follow through on this commitment you have made. Make the Kuchiki family proud in doing so. That is all I ask of you."

Rukia suddenly felt all of the tension drain out of her, like air from an unsealed balloon. At length, though, she recalled her manners and ducked her head quickly.

"Gladly, onii-sama."

"You must be tired from your work today. Go and rest."

"Of course, onii-sama. If you will pardon me, then…."

Again, Byakuya simply inclined his head, and Rukia stood with what remained of her self-control and glided out of the room with a calm that she did not inwardly feel in the slightest.

Once she left the hall entirely, Byakuya stood as well, looking down upon the empty plates that they were leaving behind.

"I suppose I should send Abarai to observe them for a short time. Or perhaps, if I can finish my work quickly enough, I will go myself."

His gaze, now that no one was trapped in its hard light, grew thoughtful.

"I am sorry, Hisana. I let her get hurt. I could try to excuse it by saying that I was not there myself to make sure she was safe, but as a man I cannot abide that sort of nonsense—even from myself."

Quietly, he reached down to the chopsticks that Rukia had left so haphazardly and placed them side by side on her plate, then departed for his room.

"I will not fail you and I will not break my word, to you or my parents. That I swore."

* * *

**Saturday, May 30th, 3:30 PM**

**Seireitei, Thirteenth Division Barracks**

All in all, Ichigo's Saturday was not off to a good start.

Thursday and Friday had been longer-than-normal Hollow-hunting nights. Because Rukia's injuries still lingered, he had to actually run her entire patrol with her to make sure that she was OK, which kept him out most of the night. Doing it twice in a row on top of running through slightly less strenuous training sessions did nothing to help him stay awake; he wound up sleeping through at least part of his classes on Saturday.

By the time he was in Soul Society, sitting out in front of the Thirteenth Division's barracks and barely gripping the training orb in his hands, he might as well have been curled up in bed. His head bobbed up and down to an irregular beat, and his eyes fluttered open and shut at random intervals.

Rukia, of course, was not at all pleased with this, and she was letting said displeasure be known.

"I was out with you all night and I am not tired," she said, frowning sharply as she resisted the urge to smack him awake with the _shinai _at her waist. "You should not be!"

"Well, you weren't studying for school for two hours after we were done, were you?" Ichigo replied, glaring at Rukia from under his half-lidded eyes. "If you were, then OK, I'm just being a lazy bastard. If you weren't, then guess what? You were getting more sleep than I did, which means that you aren't going to be more tired than I am!"

Rukia finally let her temper get the best of herself, and she gave Ichigo a good swat on the back of the head with the _shinai_. "Kurosaki-san, control yourself! Did you come here to train or to complain?"

Ichigo, naturally stunned by the blow, dropped the orb onto his foot, then cursed and rocked forward inadvertently. In his half-asleep state, that translated to falling flat out on his face, into the dirt, with a loud and appropriate _THWAK_.

A few of the regular Soul Reapers that were doing their own training exercises saw and heard this, and stopped to goggle and stare at Ichigo. Naturally, Rukia was embarrassed by the sudden influx of attention, but given that she wasn't even a seated officer, she couldn't tell them to stop making fools of themselves without appearing to overstep her authority.

Sighing, Rukia shook her head, put a hand on Ichigo's shoulder, and pushed him back up into a sitting position before taking the orb and dropping it back into his lap. Before she launched into her normal scolding tirade, though, she stopped cold, primarily because she saw a familiar red topknot of a ponytail approaching her and Ichigo.

Inadvertently, Rukia's hand tightened on Ichigo's shoulder, causing him to yelp in pain.

"Hey, what're you doing?" he yelled, unaware of the approaching Reaper that Rukia had seen. "That hurts!"

"Quit your yelling, kid. You're embarrassing yourself."

Ichigo stood up in a rush and turned to face the new arrival, only to stop before even forming a word.

After adjusting the expensive-looking sunglasses on his forehead, Lieutenant Renji Abarai gave a confident smirk, crossed his arms, exposing part of the tribal tattoos on his biceps, and regarded Ichigo and Rukia without much concern. "Hey, Rukia. How've things been?"

Despite the sudden clenching of her stomach, Rukia managed to keep her face neutral. "I am fine, thank you, Lieutenant Abarai. I trust that you have been well yourself?"

Renji's smirk grew larger, albeit slightly. "Hey, you don't have to stand on ceremony with me, Rukia. We're friends, aren't we? And to answer your question, not much danger in doing paperwork all the time, you know? I've been itching for a field exercise, but hey, work's work. Right?"

Rukia nodded shortly. "That is true."

Ichigo looked between the two Reapers with growing confusion, and then let out a low groaning growl of frustration. "Hey. Does one of you mind explaining to me how you know each other?"

Renji returned Ichigo's puzzled, brow-bunched glare with a stare of his own before rounding back on Rukia. "What? Rukia, you didn't tell your student about your old pal Renji Abarai from Rukongai?" His lip quivered in mock dismay. "I'm so hurt!"

"I had no reason to," Rukia said, folding her arms together. "I did not even know that you knew him at all. Considering that it was my brother that...apprehended him, I assume you were there as well?"

Renji sighed, and shrugged. "Yeah, I was there. Kid was just as annoying then as he is now."

Ichigo cleared his throat rather loudly. "Hey! Quit making small talk and do whatever you're here to do already! I was in the middle of training, you know. You're interrupting."

Renji grunted in annoyance and all but smacked his forehead into Ichigo's. "Hey, you asked to hear the story, dumbass! Don't complain about it after the fact!"

Though the redheaded Lieutenant's sudden intrusion temporarily put Ichigo off guard, he soon gathered himself and made a response, pushing his own forehead against the black metal of Renji's black, visor-like sunglasses. "Yeah? Well, you're the one that just waltzed up and—"

Unable to take much more arguments, Rukia took a deep breath through her nostrils and counted to five before she spoke again—or rather, shouted. "RENJI! KUROSAKI! CUT IT OUT!"

Surprised by the sudden change in her diction, Ichigo and Renji both turned to face her with identical blank looks on their faces. Everyone present went quiet after that outburst, if only for a while; Rukia losing her temper was rare enough (though training with Ichigo had made her explosions just a little bit more commonplace), but for her to be audibly upset at a Lieutenant, of all people, was practically unbelievable, her status as a Kuchiki notwithstanding.

What was even more surprising was that Renji immediately backed down, actually managing to look embarrassed. "Sorry, Rukia."

Rukia groaned and put a hand to her forehead, repressing the urge to further lose control over her emotions. "Quit apologizing already, Renji, and make up your mind about what you're doing. I'm fairly certain you didn't come here to wax reminiscent about the past."

Renji heard the stress in her voice and decided to quit messing around (though he was secretly pleased that at the very least he'd gotten her to publicly call him by his first name for the first time in a fairly long time). "Well, I guess I'll have to tell you the story some other time, kid." He straightened up and looked Rukia dead in her violet eyes with his brown ones. "Captain Kuchiki sent me here to assess Kurosaki's progress. If he can get his paperwork done on time, he'll be here within the hour to watch you two for a while."

Rukia's complexion became even paler, and her knuckles creaked and groaned when her hands clenched into fists. "Onii-sama…is coming here?"

"Yeah. I don't know what he expects to see, but he's more or less dead-set on it. My advice to you is to get this laggard in some kind of shape by the time he shows up."

Puzzled by Rukia's sudden self-withdrawal, Ichigo frowned and waved a hand in front of her face. "Hey. What's the matter? It can't be that bad, can it? Seriously."

"It is that bad. Onii-sama…onii-sama is…he'll come here and see Kurosaki-san continue to struggle with the orb, and he'll think of me as a failure. He'll be so disappointed. I know it."

Annoyed by Rukia's half-distracted state and unwilling to deal with it for too much longer, Ichigo grabbed her and shook her roughly by the shoulders. It did no good, though. She simply continued to stare past him, lost in her own thoughts.

"Don't bother, kid," Renji said, shaking his head. "When she gets that starry doe-eyed look, nothing short of a typhoon will snap her out of it." He picked up the orb that Ichigo dropped and eyed it carefully, cupping his chin in his other hand. "So, you did this?"

Ichigo scowled, though the action was directed not at Renji but at the training orb. "Yeah. Kuchiki said I wasn't even close though, and when she tells me what I'm doing wrong, she says 'Control your energy more. You are putting too much into it'. But as it is I'm barely managing to squeeze anything into it, thanks to both this thing—" here, he pointed at the glowing armband— "and whatever skill I have at controlling my energy. And somehow, I keep going over!"

"I see." Renji's thoughtful expression became a sly grin, and he put the sphere on the ground. "Sounds like you've got a pretty large load of Spiritual Energy and can't quite keep a cap on it even when it's being held back. In that case, let this fellow idiot help you out."

"Idiot? I'm no idiot!"

Renji snorted. "It's a figure of speech. Guys in the Academy used to call slowpokes at energy control, like you—and me, once upon a time—'idiots'. They were just being cocky little bastards because they could tune naturally."

"Tune?" Ichigo asked, his anger at the insult somewhat forgotten in lieu of his curiosity. "What's that?"

Renji sighed and scratched his head. "Well. That's a more complicated matter. Put simply, any object composed of Spirit Particles—which does include the bodies of Soul Reapers and pretty much everything in Soul Society—has a sort of…resonance." He raised two fingers before he continued speaking. "In 'living' beings like Soul Reapers, and even _zanpakutou_, that resonance manifests as Spiritual Energy. In inanimate objects, it's more like a spiritual wavelength. Tuning only works on inanimate objects, and it involves 'reading' that wavelength so that you can tell how much energy it can take in before it begins to get too unstable. In the case of that orb, tuning will help you figure out how much energy it can take from you before you start overloading it."

Ichigo scowled. "And why didn't Kuchiki teach me this if it was gonna help me out?" he asked. "She's complaining about how slow I'm moving, but she isn't making sure I know the stuff that'll help me out!"

Renji adjusted his sunglasses again, barely brushing a finger across the orange plastic that lined the bottom of his lenses "It's not a skill that sees much practical use unless the user has a high skill level in terms of using it. Otherwise, it takes too much concentration to tune down to the finest point of control. At best, it's a crutch—until the user manages to somewhat replicate the same level of control without actually going into the whole process, which is what the sphere exercise is supposed to teach."

The red-haired lieutenant then crossed his arms and tapped his right pointer finger on his left forearm one or two times, frowning. "From what I remember Rukia never really needed to practice in-depth tuning, and is probably trying to teach you the way she learned her energy control in the first place." He grinned again. "Of course, it pays to have an 'idiot' around to teach an 'idiot', right? What do you say we get started?"

Ichigo looked over at a still blank-faced Rukia, then back to Renji, and grinned as well. "Let's. How do I start this off?"

Renji picked up the now-clear orb and put it back into Ichigo's hands. "It's like trying to sense Spiritual Energy, or Spiritual Pressure. But instead of focusing outward, you focus directly on the object. Don't pump any Spiritual Energy into it, now. Just try to focus on it. If you do it correctly, you should feel something like a heartbeat coming from whatever it is you're trying to tune with."

Ichigo nodded, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath to steady his body before he did as he was told. It took what seemed to be forever, but gradually, he began to feel a dull throbbing in his palms that didn't come from his own veins. The throbbing soon resolved itself into a heartbeat, just like Renji had said.

"OK. I feel it. Now what?"

"Now start putting energy into it. But keep a hold on the pulse. Notice how it'll change. When you're close to where you need to be I'll tell you to stop."

Again, Ichigo did as he was told, but soon found himself scowling as his energy began to leak through faster than he'd expected it to. He felt the pulse speed up accordingly as he filled the sphere, but in what seemed like a fraction of a second to him, Renji was telling him to stop. Unfortunately, the command had come a bit too late, and Ichigo put one final burst of energy into the sphere before finally managing to cut off the flow altogether; when he did stop, the pulse felt like his own heartbeat after jogging for a few blocks.

Renji hissed as Ichigo opened his eyes to look at his handiwork; the sphere was almost as dark as it had been the first time Ichigo had put energy into it. A bit lighter, but not by much.

"A bit too much," Renji said. "Let it clear out. But try to tune with it with your eyes open, even as the energy's flowing out. If you can catch a feeling for what's right, you'll be able to get closer. By the time Captain Kuchiki shows up, you probably won't have it down to a science, but you'll be doing better on your end."

Ichigo nodded and adjusted the sphere a little bit, pleasantly surprised when he realized that he could vaguely sense his own energy coming out of it in addition to the rapid pulse of the wavelength. After a moment of silence, he looked up at Renji; the red-haired Lieutenant was a bit taller than him, but not overwhelmingly so.

That made him a little less comfortable with what he had to say next.

"Abarai?"

"Yeah?"

Ichigo shifted back and forth on his feet for a minute, and his customary scowl deepened momentarily. "Thanks for…helping me out with this whole thing. I appreciate it."

Renji blinked, but the bemused sort of frown he wore gave way to a shrug and a cocky grin in reply.

"Consider it a favor from Renji-senpai or whatever. Just don't count on it all the time, eh? You've gotta learn to wipe your own ass sometime or another."

The shift in Renji's attitude gave Ichigo some of his bravado back.

"Don't you worry about that, you smart-assed bastard. I will."

* * *

Rukia's fit of panic didn't quite subside until she was brought out of it by Ichigo's whoop of triumph, followed by Renji's laughter, some fifteen minutes after he'd begun trying to tune. Alarmed by the noise, she snapped to attention, and saw, much to her disbelief, that Ichigo had managed to come closer than ever to actually completing the exercise correctly; the sphere was just about the right shape of blue with a close match to the proper amount of Spiritual Energy.

"What? How…?"

"Looks like you've still got a ways to go as far as that teaching style of yours is concerned," Renji said, grinning smugly. "Why didn't you ever think to try teaching the kid how to tune?"

"It's not efficient, that's why! If he becomes too reliant on that technique, then should he need to perform a control task in a short amount of time, he'll be incapable of it!"

Renji inclined his head to the side and grunted, admitting the point. "But it wouldn't have hurt to let him do it just to start, don't you think? I mean, look at him now."

Rukia pursed her lips, though she had to admit that Ichigo actually looked legitimately happy for once, no doubt due to his newfound success. He was closer than he'd been before, so perhaps…it wouldn't be so bad.

"If this sets back his growth later on, you're responsible for it, Renji."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

"We?" Rukia folded her arms and looked up at Renji with a frown on her face. (_More cute than intimidating, _Renji thought, but he made a point to keep his face neutral.) "Are you volunteering to help me?"

Renji shrugged one of his shoulders. "Maybe a little bit. I mean, to be honest, Rukia, it's not like you _have_ to train him by yourself, you just chose to. You keep in mind that I have my duties as a Lieutenant to attend to, as well, so it's not like I'll be doing it all the time."

"Under normal circumstances I'd take issue with your commitment issues, but in this case I suppose I shouldn't belabor the point. If you're willing to pull your weight, then you can do as you like."

Renji nodded firmly. "Still a smart girl, I see. Good." He then turned his attention back to Ichigo, who was still grinning like a loon. "Kurosaki! Quit waving that damn thing around and get back to work!" He pulled his phone out of his pocket and did a quick calculation in his head of how much time they had left. "Captain Kuchiki's gonna be here in forty minutes or so. You don't have time to screw around!"

Ichigo groaned. "It's still got my energy in it," he said, holding it out for Renji to see. "What else am I supposed to do?"

"Stay tuned with it, dumbass, that's what! Practice is the only way to make your skills good enough to avoid full-on tuning every time!"

Ichigo's lip twitched upwards, but Renji cut off his incoming complaint with a pointed glare; eventually, the Reaper in training sighed and backed down, doing as his newest teacher had instructed.

With a satisfied smirk, Renji turned back to Rukia, crossing his arms and grinning.

"And that's how you do it."

Rukia simply raised one eyebrow. "Indeed."

* * *

In the end, the forty minutes had come and gone without Byakuya making an appearance, and a bewildered Renji, surprised that Byakuya Kuchiki of all people would be late to somewhere, decided to try and fill the sudden lull in training by sparring with Ichigo.

As it turned out, that served them well; Ichigo's pride in his swordsmanship, though not unfounded, was a bit too highly set for Renji's taste. In thrashing Ichigo around a couple of dozen times, he brought the young Reaper's confidence down by a few pegs, but not enough to make Ichigo roll over and quit.

In fact, Ichigo was in the middle of pulling himself up from the ground when he saw Renji and Rukia straighten up suddenly, as if something cold had slithered down their backs.

_Kuchiki's here, _he thought to himself, and dusted off his robes before he turned to see that the Sixth Division captain was indeed standing over him, looking down coolly as he always was. Ichigo stiffly bowed a little bit, figuring that the older man would be expecting it. "Captain Kuchiki."

Byakuya inclined his head in return. "Kurosaki." He then focused on Renji and Rukia, who bowed as soon as they noticed his eyes straying to them. "Rukia, Abarai. What has he been doing today?"

"We were just taking a break from Spiritual Energy control, sir," Renji explained, unconsciously tapping his thumb against the guard of the _shinai_ he'd just used to knock Ichigo down. "As you can see, Kurosaki's swordsmanship is…fairly adequate. I was just taking an extra chance to educate him about some of his faults."

Byakuya simply looked at Renji for a while more, then back to Ichigo, before he spoke again. "Give me your _shinai. _I would like to test him for myself."

Renji immediately handed the practice weapon over to his superior. After experimentally tightening and loosening his grip on the _shinai, _Byakuya nodded and refocused his attention on a visibly nervous Ichigo.

"Take your stance. We will begin when Lieutenant Abarai gives the signal."

To his credit, Renji managed to get the look of blank confusion off his face before he nodded in understanding. Byakuya simply entered his own stance, holding his _shinai _with the practiced ease of someone that knew a sword like the back of his hand; in contrast, Ichigo's normally decent stance was shaky, due in no small part to his intense nervousness. Byakuya seemed to be radiating an eerie, almost otherworldly calm, yet the tenseness, the readiness, in the Captain's stance was so eminent that Ichigo could all but taste it in the air.

Renji slowly raised his hand, and Ichigo immediately tightened his stance; the moment that the Lieutenant's hand cut through the air with a calm, solitary swish, Ichigo was moving forward, sword raised overhead for a high strike.

Without blinking, Byakuya let the attack come closer and closer. Then, right as the forward motion of Ichigo's body and _shinai_ were about to end, Byakuya _moved._

Ichigo felt two separate pushes against his body, one at his chest and one at his back, before he heard Byakuya take a step, possibly a landing one, behind him. Shortly afterwards, the pressures grew into sharp, stinging pains, and Ichigo immediately dropped to one knee, gripping the bottom of his _shinai's _handle with his left hand and holding his chest with his right.

_I don't know if he struck me from the front or from behind, _the carrot-top realized dimly. _Did he move that quickly or was I just that nervous?_

"That was a warning, Kurosaki," Byakuya said. "Whatever is distracting you must be put aside now. I have no interest in facing an opponent that will not focus their attention wholly on me."

Ichigo swallowed heavily and sighed, then got to his feet, brandishing his _shinai _with an impatient, and irritated, vigor.

"F—Fine then!" He mentally cursed himself for stuttering, but put more anger into his voice to compensate for it. "Come however you want and anytime you want! I'm ready for you!"

Byakuya didn't even acknowledge Ichigo's words, and simply continued to wait. After steadying himself further, Ichigo began to circle around, and Byakuya moved to match him. They continued to shuffle in a circular motion, ignorant of the crowd that had begun to gather around them.

It was Ichigo's first misstep—a lowering of his guard by just a fraction—which gave Byakuya an opening to rush in with a strike to the guard of Ichigo's _shinai._ Though Ichigo evaded the first attack, Byakuya immediately continued to follow after him, using short, strong swings to force him into a defensive position.

Though Byakuya's speed wasn't exceeding Ichigo's ability to comprehend it, he knew that the captain was holding back. The "warning" was more than enough proof of that. Tracking Byakuya was also made harder by the fact that the man kept his Spiritual Energy tightly bound up, such that Ichigo couldn't even feel it in the slightest. Though Ichigo hadn't gotten used to using Spiritual Energy as a precise marker of predicting enemy attacks, he had begun to, however crudely, utilize it just enough to have a vague gauge of where the enemy was moving or possibly even intending to move. Being bereft of it now was one of the many things keeping him from matching Byakuya's pace, the others being raw speed and experience.

Despite that, the spar continued, and Ichigo kept warding off blows from all sides until he finally began to feel his muscles flagging and movements slow down. Eventually, he failed to properly brace his _shinai_against a blow aimed at his temple, and his weapon went flying from his grasp as Byakuya struck the side of his head and knocked him down.

To the deputy Reaper's relief, the blow wasn't too painful. As he braced his palms against the ground to catch himself, he shook away the slight ringing sensation and the spots in his eyes without much trouble. However, the collective gasps of the spectators that had gathered implied that the attack had looked much more painful than it actually was. Shaking his head again, he got back to his feet, just in time to have his _shinai_ pressed back into his hands by Byakuya.

"A fair effort," the Captain said. His face remained impassive and unimpressed. "But you are still a child, after all. Continue your training." With that, he handed his own practice weapon back to Renji and began to walk away, calm as ever.

Ichigo took a bold step forward, blinking away the nausea that almost overtook him. "Wait a minute. That's it? You came late, then swoop in, beat me up, and leave? What kind of gauge of my progress is that?"

Byakuya stopped walking as the assorted crowd gasped again, this time in stark disbelief of Ichigo's brazen question. Renji put a hand on his face and rubbed his forehead with his fingertips, muttering something about "stupid kids", while Rukia's eyebrows twitched together and apart in an irregular cadence.

"It was enough," Byakuya replied, not turning to face Ichigo in the slightest. "But if you insist, I will teach you something. The "warning strike" I used earlier is called the Senka technique. The first spot I struck was the very place where your Chain of Fate would have been located, your Binding Chain. The second spot was your Soul Sleep. Had I used a real blade, I would have pierced them fully, and completely removed your powers."

Ichigo flinched slightly and stepped back, though the action was unconscious on his part. Byakuya, ignorant of this, continued speaking as calmly as ever.

"I doubt you could even perceive which strike hit you first or where you were hit. If that is the case then there is little point in me continuing to spar with you. Now, I have business to attend to. As I said, continue to train. When you become capable of perceiving the Senka, perhaps I will feel inclined to believe that you are worthy of more."

Saying no more, he continued to walk off, and the Thirteenth Division members parted to let him by.

Ichigo watched him go with his lips pressed together in his usual tight scowl. Once the longhaired Captain was gone, the teenager sighed and shook his head.

"That guy is such a prick."

Rukia moved with speed befitting a ninja and all but broke her _shinai _on the back of Ichigo's head.

"YOU! ARE SPEAKING! ABOUT! MY BROTHER! Mind your manners!"

From where she stood at the sidelines beside Sentarou, Kiyone glanced rather dubiously at Rukia, who was now ranting at Ichigo while he tuned her out and Renji watched the whole debacle without saying a word.

"I haven't ever seen Rukia-chan so worked up before," the co-Third seat said to Sentarou. "What is it about that boy that gets to her so easily?"

Sentarou put a hand on his chin, rubbing his goatee a few times before nodding with decision. "He's an idiot. A quick learner, but still an idiot."

The crowd began to disperse as Ichigo finally responded to Rukia's tirade by yelling, "I don't care if he's the second coming of the goddamn Buddha! Your brother's a dick!"

That earned him a handy punch to the face and a black eye, followed by a lot of scribbling with a marker on his face while he was unconscious.

Renji snorted. "Really, Rukia? That's just childish."

"He deserves it," Rukia said, her face set in a firm, petulant pout. "Be quiet or you'll be next."

The redheaded man raised his hands in mock surrender and smirked, but said nothing as Ichigo continued to "doze"; the Deputy Reaper's face was now decorated with a nice monocle, a curlicue mustache, and crooked rabbit whiskers.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Man, this one was a pain in the neck. I'd planned to split the Shrieker fight between two chapters but I hadn't realized what a gap I was leaving by doing so. Had to go back to the drawing board and think things over, so that's why this took so long._

_Anyway. With this one done, I'm staying quiet until March. I'm happy to say that Substitute School has pretty much passed my other stories in terms of favorites and story alerts. I'm glad to see everyone's enjoying it and hope that you'll continue to stick with me._

_Remember to head over to the forums and discuss stuff if you like. I made them precisely so that it would be easier for people to bounce ideas about plot speculation and the like off of one another. Here's the link again:_

_forum(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/forum/Substitute_School_Forums/_

_Just remember the rules and we'll be golden, mmkay?_

_Cultural Notes:_

_Senka: Literally means "Flash Blossom/Flower". This is the very same move that Byakuya used on Ichigo in-series to almost kill him the first time they met._

_Well, 'till March. I'll see ya next class!_

_~Zero-Sennin_


	7. Lesson 7: Adv Hollow Combat 101, Pt 1

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 7: Advanced Hollow Combat 101: Part 1, or Taking Family Time_

* * *

**Tuesday, June 16****th**

**Karakura Town, Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

As the sun slowly continued to rise over Tokyo's very own Karakura Town, people all over the city began to prepare themselves for the busy day ahead of them, at work or at school.

Normally, a certain orange-haired boy would have been up and at 'em with the rest of the townsfolk, but thanks to a steadily-increasing load of training and studying that he'd been enduring over the last two weeks, Ichigo was in barely any shape to crawl into bed on most nights, especially the night of June 15th. Rukia had run striking drills with him for the better part of an hour before switching to full-on sparring, and that was after an hour with the energy sphere. "Your control is better, though not perfect. Your speed, on the other hand, is abysmal," Rukia had told him. "I told Renji—erm, Lieutenant Abarai—that this would happen if you were to learn and use the tuning method."

On the weekends, both she and Renji alternated between drills with him, and though they were still holding back somewhat (Renji more so), Ichigo was still being moderately overwhelmed by their experience more than anything else. On top of that, Rukia had hinted that with his control of his spiritual energy somewhat growing, they would start to learn Kidou soon—though a trip to the Twelfth Division, to adjust his armband, would most likely come before that, in order to further force him to control his abilities properly.

Added to the stress of schoolwork, the sweet, sweet embrace of sleep was the only place Ichigo could find any rest these days.

The morning of June 16th, however, was no such day.

* * *

_Ichigo blinked and cursed violently as his vision swam and a sudden sense of vertigo rushed to greet him. Pressing a hand to his brow, he shook his head rapidly and looked around, only to find that he was once again standing on the side of a skyscraper in the same eerily quiet cityscape. However, the sky, still projected at its odd, ninety-degree angle, was overcast this time, in contrast to the cloudless weather that had been illuminating this world last time he visited it._

"_This place again. What I am here for this time?"_

_A slight gust of wind ruffled his Reaper's robes, and he looked around, expecting to see the man in black again. He wasn't disappointed, as he saw the black silhouette on another building, several feet "beside" Ichigo, standing on the bottom of a flagpole (or was it the side of the pole, Ichigo wondered, realizing that the pole was sticking straight up from his perspective). For a moment, Ichigo was mildly disturbed by it, but then recalled that he'd been purifying insane spirits with a giant sword for the last month or so, and shrugged it off._

_With a last look upwards at the tilted sky, Ichigo began to walk, albeit unsteadily, towards the flagpole. He was saved the effort when the man seemingly vanished from that spot, and re-appeared a foot or two behind him, scaring the living daylights out of him in the process._

_Without acknowledging Ichigo's fright, the man in black nodded. __**"Welcome back, Ichigo. Though I must say I wish it were under better circumstances."**_

"_What's that supposed to mean?" Ichigo asked, looking around again. "Nothing seems wrong to me."_

_The man pointed to the side, towards the clouds in the overcast sky that hovered 'above' them. __**"Those were not there the last time you were here. Do you know why they are here now?"**__ He didn't wait for an answer. __**"Your heart is weighed down with something. I do not expect you to tell me what, but I know that fact for sure. Rain, and the storm, will come next if your mood does not improve."**_

_Ichigo followed the movements of the clouds, scowling, but noticeably confused as well. "So is that why you dragged me back into here, to make commentary on the weather?"_

_The man in black ignored the dry sarcasm in Ichigo's tone entirely, stepping towards the top of the building. __**"The time is near, Ichigo. The question is this. Will you be prepared for it?"**__ He turned to face Ichigo again, and for the first time, the young Deputy Reaper caught a glimpse of the eyes behind the man's orange sunglasses. They were solemn, stone-cold things, and yet Ichigo felt no fear, which emboldened him somewhat. With a cocky smirk, Ichigo bumped a closed fist on his chest and grinned widely. "Just who do you think I am, you old man?"_

_The man in black simply looked down at him, and said nothing. Gradually, the world around them began to fade into darkness, cloaking the old man's body in shadow. Ichigo flinched and looked around in confusion, but he could see none of the buildings, nor the sky; his own vision began to blur and fog again, and he fell to his knees with a sudden sense of exhaustion before falling forward onto his face._

* * *

**7:30 AM**

**Kurosaki Residence/Clinic, Ichigo's Bedroom**

Before he could hit the 'ground' beneath his feet in the dark void, Ichigo awoke, jerking upright with a short, hard gasp. Grunting in annoyance, he pressed a hand to his face and shook himself a few times, casting a wary eye around his room with his physical eyes and his spiritual senses on the off chance that something nearby had been responsible for his dream.

Nothing came to his notice, and he sighed, flopping back down onto his pillow. Then, out of curiosity, he got up and walked over to his desk, picked up his phone, and checked the date and time. Seeing that it was the sixteenth of June, his scowl softened slightly, but only just. Tomorrow was not a day he was looking forward to, and with good reason. He knew what he'd have to ask Rukia tonight, and could already anticipate her intensely indignant response on a physical and verbal level.

But for now, today was today. He'd get through what he had to deal with on the sixteenth before worrying about the seventeenth. He rubbed a bit of crust out of his eyes and began to head over to the bathroom for a morning shower. Yuzu would be up and making breakfast within the half-hour, and he'd need to be heading off to school by at least 8:45 or 9 at the latest. Though for some reason, his father had apparently declined to attack him this morning; had Isshin done what he called "his fatherly duty", Ichigo would've been pounding the older Kurosaki's face into the wooden floor already.

In the bathroom, he stood in front of the sink and splashed his face a few times, then stared his reflection dead in the face for a few seconds.

"It's only the 16th," he said, his voice quiet and barely echoing off the tiles. "It'll be fine. Just put on the same old face and you'll be fine."

* * *

**9:25 AM**

**Karakura High School, Class 1-3**

It was a few minutes before Ms. Ochi's homeroom class was due to start, and Orihime Inoue was in the middle of an…interesting discussion with Tatsuki and Michiru Ogawa, another friend of hers, about their "future-self" drawing assignment that was due later on that day.

Tatsuki's picture had been pretty simple; she'd imagined herself being a karate champ in the near future, and was standing proudly over her beaten and bloodied opponent without a scratch on her body. Michiru had nothing but praise for Tatsuki's work, but when Orihime showed them both her own picture with a wide smile on her face, they were lost for words.

Tatsuki was the first to break the stunned silence. "…is that a rocket coming out of your boob, Orihime? And…are those treadmill-wheels you have for feet? Pincers for hands?"

"Yep! I'm a 25th-century robot with a super high top speed, a really strong flamethrower, and super 'Hime Beams' coming from my eyes! And I'll be fighting for love and peace wherever I go as the super Hime-bot!"

Michiru nervously tucked back a brown strand of her short-cut hair, passing her hand under the pair of clips she used to keep her bangs out of her face. "Orihime, it wasn't that kind of 'future self' project. You were supposed to imagine what job you would be doing in the future, or something!"

"The teacher's totally going to think that you were just screwing around and weren't taking the project seriously!" Tatsuki said, sighing. "You'll probably get detention again knowing your luck."

"But isn't protecting the peace a job?" Orihime asked, shrinking behind her fairly large sketchpad. "And it'll be in the future, so how doesn't it count as being about me in the future?"

Tatsuki groaned and was about to explain in the smallest words possible just what it was they were supposed to have done, but the clatter of the door opening distracted them; they reflexively looked up to see Ichigo, calm as ever, walk into the room.

Orihime perked up and waved brightly at him. "Good morning, Kurosaki-kun!"

Ichigo's face lit up, and Orihime suddenly felt a sense of mild uneasiness as he smiled back, very broadly, no less, and returned the greeting before going to sit by Keigo and Mizuiro.

"I don't think I've ever seen Kurosaki-kun so happy before," Michiru said, blinking in astonishment. "I wonder what happened to him this morning? Maybe a good breakfast?"

"You're wrong, Michiru-chan," Orihime replied. Her smile was completely faded away now, and she was watching Ichigo laugh and joke around with Keigo and Mizuiro with the same unnaturally wide smile and a laugh on his lips. "That smile…he doesn't smile like that. Something's wrong."

"How could that be? Smiling like that, there's no way he's upset about anything!"

Tatsuki adjusted herself in her seat, and seemed to fall into a deep thought as Orihime finished speaking. Then, she dug into her pocket and snatched her phone out, flipping open the lid to display the date. "Sixteenth of June, huh. Should've known."

Orihime and Michiru focused their attentions on her after hearing that remark, and the black-haired girl sighed. "Orihime's right," she said. "Ichigo is hiding something. But it's not my place to tell you. All you really need to know is that if you need to talk to him about something, do it today."

She shifted her gaze briefly to him, and then out to the window. She remembered a time much farther back than the three years it had taken her to understand Ichigo's behavior on the sixteenth of June every year. It was a time when that cheerful expression on his face now might have had sincerity that one could practically touch.

"Tomorrow, you won't be able to find hide or hair of him."

Orihime simply looked between Tatsuki and Ichigo, her expression confused and sad, while Michiru frowned, completely perplexed by the sudden serious atmosphere between the three of them.

* * *

**3:35 PM**

**Karakura Town**

As Ichigo pedaled back towards home, the smile that he'd pasted onto his face for the entire day gradually began to peel off, revealing a more neutral, but preoccupied, expression that was somewhere between deep thought and a dark frown.

He felt a sudden tingling of cold brush against his spiritual senses before disappearing, and he squeezed the handbrake slightly, going from a fairly fast clip to about walking speed. His hunch turned out to be correct, as Rukia came out of a Flash Step atop a nearby wall and leapt down to street level before walking over to him.

"Well, this makes things easier," he said, before she could even offer a greeting. "Kuchiki. I need a favor."

"Try recalling your manners first and we'll see if I will deign to grant it," she retorted, a hint of insincere reproach pervading her tone.

Ichigo rolled his eyes, and then brought the bike to a full stop, leaning onto his left leg to stay somewhat upright. "Kuchiki-san," he said, purposely altering his voice to sound stilted and excessively humble, "this unworthy trainee has a favor of utmost importance to beg of you."

Rukia crossed her arms and tapped a sandaled foot against the gray concrete of the sidewalk. "Now you're wasting time. Get to the point."

"I need to take tonight and tomorrow off."

The sharpness of Rukia's reply would have been able to cut diamond in half. "What? After what happened last week, you DARE to ask me such a thing? Have you gone mad, Ichigo Kurosaki?"

Ichigo winced, but continued to speak. "Look, I had five minutes left for lunch period by the time we found those stupid Hollows, and I had to hurry, so—"

"My arms, my back, and…my posterior…." Rukia blushed and pushed her lips into a tight, indignant frown. "…are still sore from that! Still! Do you know that it was so obvious that I had to explain what happened to Renji—" She blinked and silently cursed herself for forgetting her manners in her haste; she was getting far too comfortable around Ichigo. "…I mean…Lieutenant Abarai, after you got knocked out during weekend practice? He might have laughed me to my grave once I told him the whole story!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, but this is the point—I know what I'm asking of you is a bit much but I wouldn't be asking you to let me take a personal day-and-a-quarter if it wasn't important!"

Rukia crossed her arms and looked up at the taller boy, her frown deepening slightly. "What's so important that you feel the need to ignore the duties that you will be legally required to discharge for at least the next century and a half?"

Ichigo drew a short, sharp breath into his nostrils and pressed a hand to his face, then sighed. When he moved his hand and Rukia saw his face again, she was taken aback by the solemnity of his expression, and the way his eyes seemed to be a dimmer brown than normal. "Tomorrow is the sixth anniversary."

"The sixth anniversary of what, Kurosaki-san?" Rukia asked, an eyebrow arched and her words almost a hiss; her patience was clearly at its thinnest point.

"Six years ago…my mother died."

Rukia immediately jerked back, as if he'd jammed a hot poker down her throat. Seeing this reaction, Ichigo paused, as if thinking, and then continued. "I need to take tonight off to prepare for tomorrow. This is the only time I'll ask for something like this. Just this once. Come on."

For a brief moment, there was a clash of wills within Rukia. The part of her that had come to really and truly like her young student wanted to know all of the details behind this development, but the strength of her noblewoman's education, and her own perceptions, fought against her compassionate feelings. She had no business asking about Ichigo's past if he did not wish to share any further details, and his expression clearly said above all else that he didn't want to disclose any more than what he had. Ultimately, stoicism won out over compassion, and she simply pursed her lips together a little tighter and nodded only slightly to indicate that she heard his words and understood.

"Then I will allow it, this once. However, I will ask that you keep your equipment with you." Before he could protest, she fixed him with a stronger version of her normal reproving glare. "I understand why you asked me for a reprieve and I have no compunctions in granting it. But should there be an emergency that requires your presence, my decision will be overridden by a higher authority, and unless you wish to see us both punished and brought before the 46 again, you will need to go on duty."

Ichigo snorted, but his glare lacked any real heat. "Fine, I'll do it. But it really has to be an emergency, or you'll be causing me some real trouble."

Rukia nodded shortly and took out her phone, flipping over to the menu for detecting Pluses. "I will purify as per normal. Use your time off well. I will see you on Friday."

With that, she turned around and took off, hopping from the wall to the roof, and then from roof to roof. Ichigo watched her leave, and then pushed off, putting his feet back on the pedals and pushing with all speed. Even when she was out of sight, though, he could still feel Rukia's spiritual energy, moving further and further away from him.

_Sorry, Kuchiki. I just have to. It's only one day._

* * *

**3:45 PM**

**Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

"All right, everybody! It's time! We're going to start deciding duties for tomorrow! And the first rule to remember is that since I'm chairing this little meeting, my word is LAW!"

Isshin Kurosaki grinned widely as he pointed to the ceiling. The frills of his fancy pink shirt were seemingly blowing in a nonexistent wind, and Ichigo fought both the urge to smack the older doctor down with a well-timed punch and to smile a little bit at his father's slightly amped-up hijinks.

"Quit your posturing and let's make our decisions already!" Karin yelled. Her brows furrowed in annoyance as she leaned forward on the dinner table. "Geez!"

"Staff director! Raise your hand if you're going to speak!"

Despite herself, Karin blushed suddenly, her eyes widening, and blinked. "Staff what now?"

"And Yuzu! You are head chef! Karin and Ichigo will be carrying the luggage!"

Karin's tiny palms slammed down onto the table with surprising force. "What? I thought I was the staff director!"

"Precisely! Ichigo is the staff that you will be directing!"

"Dad, you're such a prick sometimes!"

Ichigo couldn't help but smile at that one, partially because it was true and partially because seeing Karin act so flustered when she oftentimes behaved like a miniature version of him was a treat in and of itself. When he looked towards the wall, at the poster of his mother Masaki, his smile faded, if only a little bit.

_You should be here to see this. But because of me…. _He sighed and shook his head._ Mom, I'm sorry._

* * *

**Wednesday, June 17, 5:30 PM**

**Karakura Town**

Unlike the June 17th that had heralded the worst day of Ichigo's life six years ago, the day was warm and sunny, almost muggy. It was somewhat uncomfortable for three-fourths of the Kurosaki family, though only Ichigo and Karin let their irritation actually show through the beads of sweat that came down their faces.

In the meantime, Isshin was busy entertaining himself, as he always did, while looking a total jackass, as he _always_ did. Currently, he was walking up the steep road on his hands. Backwards. With a huge grin on his face.

"Come on, Kurosaki family! Smile! Trek through the heat and smile! SMILE!"

Karin grunted in annoyance and continued to stomp up the hill with Yuzu at her side. Suddenly incensed by his daughter's disinterest, Isshin turned around so that he wasn't facing downhill, and sped up his hand-walking pace with a tremendous grin.

"No matter what you do, children, you can't stop me! Now take this! Isshin Kurosaki-style Amazing Daddy Slide!" He broke into a sudden slide and somehow managed to defy gravity, traveling up the hill just far enough to glide under Yuzu and blow her skirt upwards. "Polka-dots today? Nice!"

Karin's growl turned into a snarl and bowled Isshin down the hill with her prized soccer-striker kick. "Scram, you perverted idiot of an old man! You're so embarrassing, jeez!"

Ichigo, traveling slightly ahead of Karin, sighed and shook his head; he was near the top of the hill at this point, and he could plainly see his family, particularly Isshin. Briefly, he let his eyes wander upwards, grimacing as the heat briefly intensified (or at least appeared to). _Definitely nothing like that June 17__th__. So hot._

Isshin soon began to claw his way back up the slope, babbling something about the stock market value falling, and Ichigo was snapped out of his thoughts, looking on ahead to Shiroyama Cemetery where his mother was interred.

_I guess I ought to appreciate these quiet moments more. I don't get them a lot these days. _He scratched his head in some weariness and continued to walk on, leaving his father in the dust. He was so distracted by his thoughts that he failed to notice the cold spark of Spiritual Energy that brushed against his subconscious, and the short lone figure, clad in black robes, standing on a lamppost.

* * *

**5:45 PM**

**Shiroyama Cemetery**

The cemetery itself was fairly quiet, much to Ichigo's relief. Rather, it was quiet after he and Karin decided to stomp on Isshin repeatedly; the older man had wanted to play some demented form of bowling with the tombstones, and Yuzu had pleaded with Ichigo and Karin to make him stop. Once they set out flowers at their mother's headstone and paid their respects with prayer, Yuzu went off to cry for a little bit while Ichigo stood in front of the monument, his arms hanging loosely yet somewhat stiff.

Ichigo lit a few sticks of incense and put them into the holders. Against his will, the memories began to flow back.

It had been raining so heavily, that June 17th. He and his mother had been walking home, despite the rain. He had bravely stood in front of her to shield her from a stray wave of water that had been kicked up by a car, drenching his yellow raincoat instead of staying under the dark umbrella his mother carried. She'd smiled her beauteous, kind-hearted smile at him when he'd told her that he was going to protect her no matter what.

And then, he saw her, that girl with the short-cut black bob of hair, wearing a large, dress-like shirt. She was standing at the riverbank, looking off into nowhere, seemingly teetering on the brink of falling. Ichigo had rushed forward, ignoring his mother's cries to come back.

Before he ever reached that girl, everything went black. When he came to, his mother was lying on top of him, pressing his back into the cold, cold stones beneath him. Her blood stained his clothing and hers, and she was no warmer than what lay beneath him.

He cried so much that he couldn't tell his own tears apart from the rain. He cried so much that even when he was found by the police, his eyes were streaked with red, and his voice was hoarse.

The next day, he'd taken his schoolbag and gone wandering along the riverside for the entire day. He didn't know why, but he had felt an inexorable compulsion to do it, despite knowing that he would find nothing aside from his own painful memories. He had no idea how long he walked that stretch, and only dimly remembered seeing Tatsuki that day; all that he really remembered was the walk, the search for something he knew he'd lost but didn't know where to find.

_Mom, you were at the center of our universe. And because I wanted to protect that little girl as much as I wanted to protect you, and Karin, and Yuzu…in the end, because of that, you wound up protecting me, and you were taken out of that position._

He could feel a tear begin to fight its way out of him as he continued to look at Masaki's headstone, but he crunched his lips together in stolid defiance of the emotion. He had no problem feeling remorse for his part in his mother's death, but to cry here and now, after six years of avoiding such a thing despite his feelings, was unacceptable to him.

It was at that point, caught between his emotions, that he felt a set of eyes upon him, and he turned to the top of the nearest hill, just to his left and behind him a bit. There, he saw someone petite, and oddly familiar; it wasn't until he looked a little harder that he was able to recognize the person as the little girl at the riverbank, dressed exactly the same way and not even aged a day.

With her appearance, Ichigo sensed a massive wave of Hollow-like Spiritual Energy. On reflex, he found himself reaching into his pocket for his badge, but the little girl was gone before he even laid hands on it. Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, Ichigo decided to go after her.

Karin and Yuzu had gone the same way that the girl had gone as well, and if all of the whistles that his father had just removed from his bag were any indication, he planned to have the family get together soon.

* * *

**6:05 PM**

Sitting at the bottom of a set of stone stairs, Yuzu wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands and sniffled quietly once or twice, leaving Karin to pat her shoulder with a gentleness that the darker-haired girl reserved specifically for situations like this.

"All right now, come on. We're eleven years old, Yuzu. I know it's tough, but you can't cry so hard when we show up here."

"I know, Karin-chan, but…it's just so hard. I miss Mom so much."

"I know. I do too. So does Ichigo, and even our freaky beardo of a dad, even though you'd have to pull teeth to get either of those idiots to admit it." Karin's expression began to grow somewhat harder, but not much. "Still, if they can bear it without crying, we can too. That's all there is to it."

Yuzu sniffled a little bit more, but eventually nodded and smiled. "Thanks, Karin-chan."

At that point, an odd trilling whistle cut through the air, and both Karin and Yuzu recognized it as their father's signal to gather up and get ready to go home. Together, the girls got up and turned towards the source of the sound, ready to leave.

It was at that point that Karin noticed that they weren't alone anymore. Not too far away, a girl stood, looking over the side of a cliff with a blank, somewhat unreadable expression on her face. Karin frowned in perfect imitation of her older brother, causing Yuzu to blink in confusion. "Stay there a second, Yuzu. I'll be right back."

Again, Yuzu blinked. "What?"

"Just do what I'm telling you, huh? Don't argue with me."

With that, Karin ambled over to the ghost with a lazy ease, adjusting her baseball cap to keep the sun out of her eyes. "Hey, ghost-girl—you got any regrets? Go see the priest down at the bottom of the hill."

The girl slowly turned to face Karin, her expression still blank. "You can see me?"

Karin's scowl deepened slightly. "Yeah, I'm one of those types. But keep it quiet. It's embarrassing."

Suddenly, the girl's face split into a wide grin, and Karin's stomach began to flip-flop around as a strangely-shaped shimmer began to form behind the girl.

"You can see me. You can see me!" The grin all but split her face. "This is terrific. Fantastic!"

* * *

Elsewhere, Ichigo felt a sudden chill descend over his senses, and he kicked up the speed, growling and snarling underneath his breath as the old man's whistle continued to pass through the air, from almost every angle of the trees around him. By force of will and a heavy amount of focus, he was barely tracking down the source of the Hollow energy, and he could also sense Karin and Yuzu, hanging very, very close to that source.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" he said, feet pounding and chest heaving as he stepped over the twigs and rocks that tried to trip him up. "Karin, Yuzu, just hold on! I'll be right there, I promise!"

A sudden gust of wind blew by his ears, and a certain small Reaper was striding alongside him with ease, her gaze focused straight ahead.

"Kurosaki. I'm assuming you've sensed the Hollow as well?"

Under normal circumstances, Ichigo might have been irritated with her for just showing up out of nowhere, especially since this was supposed to have been his day off. Now was an emergency, though. There was no time for fussing over trivial crap when there was something else to do. "Yeah…it's near my sisters." He frowned. "I've got to get them out of there, and then we'll deal with the Hollow."

"We? This is your day off, is it not?"

"Screw that. As soon as Karin and Yuzu are safe, we're killing that bastard, period. I'm not leaving you alone to fight that thing."

Rukia smiled softly to herself. She was seeing his usual scowl but he knew that there was something purely selfless driving him now. "Indeed. I'll distract the Hollow, you move your sisters to safety and return."

"Sounds like a plan."

Rukia daintily cleared her throat. "Also, regarding your mother, and what you said about her death…."

Ichigo didn't blink in the slightest, keeping his eyes forward. "Yeah?"

"I will admit that I want to know the story behind it. However, it is your prerogative to tell me what you feel I should know, no more and no less. And even if you tell me nothing, I'm fine with that." Her expression softened slightly. "All that matters is trust. If you trust me, I will trust you, and vice versa."

Ichigo nodded once, shortly and briskly, but Rukia knew that he was absorbing what she'd said ever so carefully.

"We're coming up to the target." She tossed a Soul Candy at Ichigo, and he caught it, wondering how it was that she'd thought to bring it. "Prepare yourself!"

* * *

Yuzu began to whimper in a choked, hoarse cry; Karin, pinned underneath the clawed foot of the Hollow that had materialized behind the girl in the dress-like shirt, looked up with a pained frown on her face; she'd been tossed around by the brown-haired monster that was currently choking her sister with its long, pink tongue—and crushing Karin underfoot.

"Yuzu…I told you to stay back," Karin whispered, her voice ragged. "Dammit…."

"No, no, you're no good at all," the girl muttered, staring up at Yuzu with undisguised hatred. "I'll eat you anyway, but only to get you out of the way."

The tongue quivered, but before Yuzu could come to any harm, Rukia took a running leap into the air and smoothly lopped off the Hollow's tongue with a single calm slash from Sode no Shirayuki, catching Yuzu with her free hand. "Hold your tongue, you cur."

The Hollow reared back in pain, though its foot stayed on Karin's back; undaunted, Rukia slashed off the limb in question, leaving Ichigo to dash in and pick up his dark-haired sister. Immediately, Rukia tossed Yuzu to Ichigo, and the strawberry-blonde boy caught his other sister in his other free hand before running off.

"Don't die, Kuchiki!"

Rukia allowed a rare grin to cross her face. "Don't worry." She turned Sode no Shirayuki's tip down towards the ground. "Dance. Sode no Shirayuki."

The blade became white, the guard, a circular snowflake, and a white tassel emerged from the end of the hilt. With a cool, cool smile, the Kuchiki 'princess' held her blade parallel to the ground and began to flare her spiritual energy.

"Let us begin."

* * *

Once Ichigo got a minute or two away from the battlefield, he popped the pill and molted out of his body, leaving Alfred in control. As soon as he became conscious, Alfred took one look at Ichigo's face and immediately understood what was going on. "Master Ichigo. I trust that you need me to watch over Mistresses Karin and Yuzu?"

Ichigo put a hand up to the hilt of his zanpakutou, behind his head. "Exactly so. Bonus points if you can find the old man. Play it cool, and if Karin and Yuzu wake up and start babbling about ghost girls and Hollows, tell 'em that you found 'em sleeping against a tree or something."

"Yes, sir," Alfred replied. "You can count on me."

Ichigo smiled thinly for a brief moment, and then took off through the brush. Alfred watched him for a while before hauling Karin and Yuzu up and away to safety, away from the battlefield.

* * *

In a quarter the time it took him to get away, Ichigo got back to the battle, blade drawn. Rukia was out of the Hollow's range of attack, staring it right in its oval-ish mask, while the girl watched Rukia dispassionately, brows slightly bunched together. When he did arrive, Ichigo took his place right beside Rukia, and both his jaw and his grip tightened considerably.

"That girl. That girl was the one I tried to save…on the day that my mother…!"

Rukia frowned suddenly as her phone vibrated in her robe's inner pocket, as did Ichigo's. Frowning, she reached into the pocket, feeling a slip of paper coming from the slot on top of the phone. She tore it off handily, read it with a few quick passes of her eyes, and did something quite unladylike.

"Shit."

Ichigo blinked. "What was that you just said?"

Rukia completely ignored Ichigo's question and tossed the scrap of paper to the ground, her face set into a frown as she continued speaking. "This is no ordinary Hollow. This one's called 'Grand Fisher'. He's a Reaper-killer, and has evaded capture for at least 54 years. His record is longer than my two arms."

The girl smiled, finally breaking her angry face. "Ah, so I am infamous." She laughed darkly. "Wonderful. Just wonderful. So the fact that you recognize me means that you've run into me before and haven't died. But you weren't a Reaper then, I presume, or I would have remembered you much better."

"You're the Hollow?" Ichigo asked, fighting to keep his voice from quavering. "But how is that—?"

The girl's laugh continued to grow, even as the bottom of her eyes sagged downwards and a thin line began to creep down her body from head to toe. "Just watch, boy," she said, her voice growing deep and masculine. "Just **watch."**

Ichigo grimaced in horror as the girl's skin simply split apart, revealing a skull-topped…thing of some sort. Said skin turned into a pair of flaps that dangled down from the ornament, and a ropy red cable popped from the top of the Hollow's head and attached itself to the top of the object.

Once this was done, the Grand Fisher's main body spoke for the first time, its voice deep and menacing.** "Ah. Much better." **It flexed its remaining fore-paw, cracking the joints rather loudly, as its new head attachment flopped around. **"This, boy, is my lure. I use it to find people that can see it—and me—, then…dinner time. But now I've got three or four sensitive ones here. I don't know if I'll be able to fit all of you into my stomach."**

Realization gradually crept over Ichigo, slowly, carefully, and coldly. If that girl was nothing but Fisher's lure, then six years ago, he had gone for nothing.

And his mother…His mother—!

Ichigo's knuckles, and his composure, finally cracked. "Son of a bitch. You killed her. You son of a bitch, you killed her! You killed my mother!"

The Hollow's mask grinned sickeningly at him. **"Oh. Is that so? I'm so sorry for your loss."**

Ichigo's composure went from cracking to crumbling, and with a wordless cry of rage, he rushed forward.

Rukia groaned inwardly, but at the same time, Ichigo's anger began to put her in mind of an extremely uncomfortable memory of watching someone else do the same thing for the same reasons. Violently, she repressed the recollection of the past, and moved to keep pace with her student. "Kurosaki! Don't do it!"

"Stay out of this!" Ichigo screamed. "This bastard is mine! Piss off!" He swung down heavily, completing a clumsy swing that the Grand Fisher easily evaded with a hop to the side. Then the Hollow's stump of a paw grew back and extended suddenly, slamming Ichigo to the ground before he could react.

Rukia quickly took her left hand off Sode no Shirayuki's grip and began to gather spiritual energy into it, converting it into the densest ball of Spiritual Pressure she could manage. "Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings…!"

Ichigo let off another loud roar and pushed upwards with all his might, throwing off the Grand Fisher. That done, he readied his blade again, baring his teeth in a feral snarl but keeping his eyes focused on the target. "Dammit! I said stay out of this, Kuchiki!"

Despite the interruption of her incantation, Rukia kept charging her attack, creating a red sphere in her left palm. "You can't fight him alone, Kurosaki! Don't be a fool!"

Ichigo's brows tightened further, and he leveled the blade straight at Fisher's throat. "That doesn't matter now! What matters is making him pay. This is my fight, Kuchiki! I'm only going to tell you one more time to stay out of it!"

Rukia stared at his back, her lips pursed together tightly. Outwardly, she was still calm and in control, but internally, she could hear the echoes of words spoken to her long ago, on an occasion just like this one.

"_What becomes of pride?"_

Her teeth began to grind together. Her _Red Flame Cannon _spell was almost ready to fire, though its power would be reduced by the incomplete incantation. If she could move quickly enough, she could catch the Grand Fisher unawares and cripple him for a lethal strike.

"_If you lend your power now, you will indeed save his life. However, you will kill his pride in the same stroke."_

"Even if it's his pride on the line…what of my duty?" she whispered. "Captain Ukitake…I can't let this end the way it did the last time I heeded your words. If Kurosaki-san dies…then I will have failed. I can't allow that. But…."

The Grand Fisher laughed and opened its mouth even wider, revealing a second, smaller one within the dark recesses of its belly. **"Cocky little brat, aren't you?" **The brown fur that covered its hunched body suddenly grew in length and reached out to ensnare Ichigo; the Deputy Reaper leapt backwards, then put the tip of his sword behind him, holding it parallel to the ground, before rushing in again with a wide horizontal cleave.

Without missing a beat, the Fisher split its hair in half, causing Ichigo's _zanpakutou_ to cut nothing but thin air, and then made it surge forward again while Ichigo was wide open.

In that moment, Rukia gripped Sode no Shirayuki even tighter and made her decision. With one strong movement, she Flash Stepped into the sky just above the Grand Fisher and thrust her left hand downward, straightening her fingers and bending her thumb.

"Hadou number 31: Red Flame Cannon!"

The sphere erupted into a crimson burst of light that flowed straight downwards, destroying a good chunk of the ground and the Hollow's hair as well. Rukia's control of the spread was precise enough that Ichigo remained unharmed, but it was still a close thing; had she been a moment slower he would have been caught in the blast.

Ichigo glared up at her, ready to tell her off, but he was silenced when she returned his stare with one of her own.

"Kurosaki…." She paused and shook her head, realizing that now was not the time for any pretense of formality. "No, Ichigo. You have to listen to me. I understand that this is a battle that concerns your pride. I understand that you want vengeance on him for what he's done. But you can't fight him alone. If your pride, your stake, in this battle, is avenging your mother…mine is making sure that you're safe. Not just because it's my duty, but because…because you're my comrade. Because of that, I cannot and I will not let you fight alone. If we don't work together, we will die. Do you want that? Do you want to leave your father and your sisters behind?"

"You aren't seriously asking me that," Ichigo said quietly, slowly recovering his sense of self; his pulse wasn't racing in his ears anymore, but he was still in battle-ready tenseness. "Of course I don't want to die, you idiot. That's why I'm the one that's gonna kill this bastard—so I can finally put the past behind me."

Rukia then hopped down from the sky and landed next to him, gripping Sode no Shirayuki with two hands once more as the Grand Fisher regarded them both warily; the power of Rukia's spell had made it leery of a head-on attack, but it was still unharmed. Its left paw twitched in anticipation as it considered his next move.

"No matter what you say, I'll not let you do it alone. Be the one to strike him down if you want to be. But I'll be here to help you do it."

From where he knelt on the ground, Ichigo looked towards her for only the briefest of moments, and saw that her violet-blue eyes were deadly serious, enough so that she once again resembled a smaller female version of her brother. Accepting that she was going to stay by his side for better or for worse, he sighed and stood up, hefting his _zanpakutou _back into ready position.

"Fine then…Rukia. Let's do this together."

Above them, the setting sun gradually became obscured by a group of dark clouds rolling across the sky.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_If any of you legitimately thought I was going to cover the two-plus weeks of Ichigo (still) cursing and struggling with the orb and having Renji and Rukia beat him to a mess in training, you're either extremely masochistic or outright insane. Therefore, time-skip~_

_This chapter is shorter than usual in part because of the fact that a couple of events covered in the manga are not covered here (Tatsuki and Orihime's conversation about Ichigo's mother, for instance). It's also because I did have a nasty case of block halfway through. I did manage to work it out, but in the process decided that not going so strictly towards my limit (Normally, my minimum is 40 double-spaced pages in Microsoft Word at a 12-pt. Times New Roman font, so roughly 20 pages a chapter) would be best._

_Also, in Chapters 5 and 6 I made a mistake regarding the time Ichigo's first class starts. I meant to write 9:30 instead of 8:30, since in at least one chapter prior that was around the time that he started it before. By the time I've posted this, it should be fixed, as should any resultant changes to the timeline in that day. I also went back and did a few miscellaneous touch-ups to some details here and there, and since I've begun to more strenuously proofread my work before posting it shouldn't happen as often. Still, if you catch something, let me know any way you feel is right. I don't mind posting fixes at all if it helps me keep everything straight._

_This chapter is one of my favorites so far, if only because of what's coming next. What is that? Well…I'd tell you, but I can't, sorry to say. Just wait and see._

_For those that might be mildly disconcerted by Ichigo and Rukia's stronger language…well, at the time, I wrote what I felt would most accurately sum up their feelings. If it really worries you, I can tell you now that it's not something I intend to make a habit out of as far as the really "big words" are concerned._

_Cultural Notes and Translations: None this chapter._

_I'll try to crank out the next chapter ASAP, but it'll possibly be even shorter than this one depending on how stringently I feel I have to stick to my page limits, and if my real-life obligations can be handled in a timely manner. I'd rather make my update in the interval that I promised instead of missing it and having to make double-time later._

_That's all for me. See you next class._

_~ZS_


	8. Lesson 8: Adv Hollow Combat 101, Pt 2

_Substitute__ School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 8: Advanced Hollow Combat 101: Part 2, or Power in Pride_

* * *

**Wednesday, June 17th, 6:10 PM**

**Karakura**** Town, Outside the Arisawa Residence**

Orihime Inoue sighed to herself as she shifted her umbrella against the sudden downpour of rain that had begun in the last two or three minutes. She'd just said goodbye to Tatsuki, and was on her way back to the hotel that was serving as "home" until she found a new apartment to move into. (The "sumo wrestler crashed into the wall" story hadn't held up too well with her landlord.)

The normally energetic and cheerful young lady had a lot on her mind today, and it was all centered around Ichigo, as per usual. However, it wasn't the most lighthearted train of thought, in part because she was coming to realize just how much Ichigo hid his pain from other people and why he had reason to do so.

Tatsuki had told her the entire story behind what caused Ichigo's odd behavior in school yesterday. How his mother's dead body had been found on top of him down by the riverbank, how he had spent that day wandering up and down the river without a spark of consciousness in his eyes. How the happy, smiling boy that was a bit of a crybaby and a mother's boy had become a tough, scowling recluse practically overnight, and how after years of defeats, he'd managed to face off against the toughest student at his dojo—that is, Tatsuki—and win without breaking a sweat, only to stop attending classes afterwards.

As the rain picked up, Orihime sighed again, through her nose this time. Now that she knew some of the history, she really understood why seeing Ichigo's scowl didn't scare her like it did Michiru. It was because she could see it for what it was—a mask, much like what her own smile could be sometimes.

_He doesn't want empty sympathy, so he acts as if he doesn't hurt at all_. _Even on the days when his pain is fresh and raw, he refuses to let the memory hold him back, so he does whatever he has to do to face it without letting his emotions show._

Orihime looked up into the dark sky and closed her eyes briefly.

_Kurosaki-kun…I understand you a little bit better now. Wherever you are, though, I hope that you're doing well today, and that you'll be OK tomorrow._

* * *

At that precise moment, Ichigo, and Rukia, were not precisely doing well, though it wasn't for lack of trying. Though they had the advantage in numbers (and in power, once Ichigo's armband came off), the Reapers were having a difficult time actually pinning down the Grand Fisher, who was sticking to hit-and-run tactics in order to compensate for his 'weakness'. Any _Bakudou_ or _Hadou_ that Rukia aimed its way were forcibly interrupted by the lure, which Fisher was whipping and slamming around like a weighted ball on a chain; it would occasionally bring its hair into the mix as well, swiping and grabbing at either Ichigo or Rukia in an attempt to catch them off guard. It hadn't managed to snare either of them yet, but they knew that if it did they would be in quite a lot of trouble.

Thanks in part to the Fisher's continued game of keep-away, Ichigo and Rukia had been forced to chase him back into the graveyard proper, where gravestone after gravestone was being wrecked by stray blows from the Hollow, or more rarely, Ichigo's blade. Luckily, Alfred had managed to bring the girls to another part of the graveyard, a little farther from the entrance proper but not too far, so there was no danger of them, or any others, being caught in the crossfire.

After evading another of Ichigo's clumsy blows, the Fisher flew over their heads with another quick, high jump. Ichigo quickly recouped himself and prepared to attack again, but was stopped when Rukia thrust her hand out in front of him. "Let's try re-thinking our strategy," she whispered. "If you can actually force him into one spot, I think I can hit him with a _Kidou_ spell from behind. It's possibly the best course of action we have. I shall retreat so that I may properly build up my energy and finish the incantation."

Ichigo nodded. "If it gets him to quit hopping around every damn where, I don't have any objections. Let's do it."

Rukia nodded once and disappeared with a good Flash Step, leaving Ichigo alone. The Fisher regarded Ichigo with what appeared to be suspicion for a brief moment, but soon went on a much bolder offensive, loping towards Ichigo to close the distance. Its hair swarmed outwards briefly before flying at Ichigo yet again; there was no hesitation on the deputy Reaper's part as he broke through on the left side, slashing apart a hunk of fur. From the corner of his eye, he saw the Fisher move around as if it were trying to get towards his unexposed back, and he quickly moved in the same direction, just managing to keep pace with it.

"**You're getting smarter, boy. But not smart enough!"**

Its left paw flew upwards at him, and before he knew it, said paw was stretching and elongating itself yet again. Ichigo managed to heft his blade up for a block just in time, but the force behind the attack pushed him back significantly, despite his best efforts to keep the edge of his _zanpakutou_ pressed against the Hollow's palm.

"I was smart enough to see that one coming," Ichigo replied with a cocky grin. Internally, though, he was swearing a blue streak. Was it really taking this long for Rukia to prepare her spell? Where was she?

The Hollow chuckled at Ichigo's words. **"But not smart enough for this!"**

The square tips of the Hollow's thin fingers split open to reveal a nasty set of dark rectangular claws, and with a harsh laugh, it made all four of those claws pierce Ichigo's flesh, punching holes into his shoulder and upper chest.

Though the pain was almost blindingly overwhelming, Ichigo could feel the cold sensation of Rukia's Spiritual Energy coming back into his awareness, and he saw her appear behind and above the Grand Fisher in another blur of Flash Steps. As she appeared, the last words of the first part of the incantation left her lips.

"…Bridge of a spinning wheel…!"

Her face went pale and her eyes widened in shock at the sight of Ichigo's wounds; despite her sudden fear for his life, she kept control of her emotions and continued to speak.

"…With light, divide this into six!"

The index and middle fingers of her right hand crackled with a yellow light for a brief moment, and then she grimaced, pointing both of them at the Grand Fisher. "_Bakudou _number 61: Six-Rod Light Restraint!"

A single yellow spark appeared at the tips of her extended fingers, and then vanished; immediately afterwards, six thin beams of light slammed into the Fisher's midsection from all sides, and it stiffened up considerably, though its claws were still piercing Ichigo's body.

As soon as she landed, Rukia shifted to a one-handed grip, cut off the offending limb, and pulled it free with her right hand, tossing it away.

"Ichigo-san," she said, her shock momentarily causing her to lapse into old behavior. "I'm—"

"It's a scratch," he grunted, though he found his _zanpakutou _in his left hand while holding his shoulder with his right. "I'm fine. Focus on him!"

Behind them, the Hollow paid no mind to her distress. **"My hand! My hand! Again you've cut it off! You little brat, I'll flay the skin from your bones!"**

Rukia charged her right hand with energy again, this time for a basic healing spell, and passed lightly over Ichigo's wounds, sealing them up somewhat for the time being. She then turned back to the Grand Fisher and quickly returned to a two-hand grip. "You wouldn't be able to do such a thing even if you could move," she said coldly. "Now be silent and die!"

She brought her blade down for the final blow, but missed the sharp movement of the lure; it had been hanging behind the Fisher's head, but was now flying down onto her from above. Ichigo had begun to shout out a warning, but he couldn't do so in time, and the blow knocked Rukia away from the Fisher and sent her rolling amongst the grass. Ichigo quickly moved to intercept, but the lure swung back around and knocked him away as well, re-opening his wounds and dazing him significantly.

The Fisher made a sound oddly similar to the clicking of a tongue. **"Your binding technique is quite impressive. But against the likes of me it won't do you any good. My lure's movement isn't controlled by my body in the same way my limbs would be." **It concentrated its Spiritual Energy for a moment, and then released it as a short burst of Spiritual Pressure that shattered the rods in its torso. The lure came to hover back in front of the Fisher's face, reforming into the little girl-shape it had taken before. Grinning, the Hollow grabbed the lure-girl with its right hand and crushed it—or so it seemed.

Ichigo managed to get back to his feet just as the Fisher opened its right hand, and to the boy's shock, the face of the woman whose life-size poster was plastered to the wall in his kitchen was staring him right in the eyes, with her normal serene and loving smile intact. She wore the same "clothes" as the little girl, but there was no mistaking that face for anyone else.

"What the hell…! Is that…M-Mom?" he whispered.

"**That it is,"** the Fisher said, its voice somehow conveying a proud sneer. **"You foolish boy. You have no idea just what it is you've gotten yourself into, do you?"** Ignoring the enraged glare that Ichigo directed at it, it raised the stump of its left hand. **"This is the hand I use to read. Whatever person I stab with the claws has their memories of their most precious person transferred to me." **It then raised its right paw and waggled the fingers. **"This hand is the hand I use to mold my lure into the shape of that precious person." **It opened its mouth, again revealing the second mouth within, and let off a mocking laugh. **"Every Reaper, as tough as they claim to be, has one person that they could never hurt. And when that person stares them in the face and begs them to stop, what do they do? They stop! The fools know that a fake is the only thing staring them in the face and yet they can't cut it down!"**

Ichigo's blade trembled in his hands. "Well, I'm nothing like them, you freak!" he yelled, fighting the urge to look at Rukia to see if she was all right, fighting the urge to cry as his mother, his beloved mother, smiled beautifully at him, hovering in front of the Hollow's grotesque mask. If he let hesitation claim him now, he was going to die, yet…his legs wouldn't move. His throat was dry and growing drier by the second. Every instinct in his body screamed to back down, but his mind screamed back that they had to push forward.

Then, the lure spoke, and Ichigo's heart all but broke in two as he heard his mother's voice for the first time in six long years.

"Ichigo…. Why are you scowling at Mom like that? Do you…hate me, Ichigo?"

Despite his best efforts, Ichigo felt his body sag in despair, if only for a moment. That was all it took. Laughing madly, the Hollow charged forward, the Masaki-lure floating close behind it; the sounds of the Fisher's feet pounding against the grass drew Ichigo out of his stupor, and he instinctively began to swing, concentrating his Spiritual Energy into his blade, but he stopped short when the lure thrust itself into his face, putting him nose to nose with the simulacrum of his mother.

"Don't cut me, Ichigo. Please…!"

Again, Ichigo's hesitation was all too much for the Grand Fisher to resist, and in a single motion, it thrust its hand through its lure and directly into Ichigo's stomach, just barely missing the brown strap that kept Ichigo's sheath on his back and forcing the boy to hunch over in a half-standing state. Though he managed to keep his _zanpakutou_ gripped in his left hand, his fingers held it only loosely, and the blade itself began to dissolve into white particles from the tip down.

"**Well, boy, this is the end. As pathetic as the battle was, I will say this. Of all the Reapers I've faced, you were the youngest, most reckless, and weakest of them all!"**

Its laughter went from deep to wildly mocking in what appeared to be an instant, and Ichigo's eyes began to roll up into his head as his perception of the world around him started to fade.

"**_Ichigo, wake up."_**

The male voice, calm and steady, made Ichigo jerk his head up, then wince as the burning sensation in his stomach flared up fifteen-fold. The black-cloaked old man from his dream world was standing atop the Grand Fisher, and the world around them had seemingly lost all color; on top of that, nothing else but them was moving in any way, shape, or form.

"**_This is the moment of truth. Tell me now. What is it that you want to do? Do you wish to fight or do you wish to live?"_**

"What…?"

"**_Do you wish to fight, Ichigo, or do you wish to live? Choose. It's the only way for this to progress."_**

Ichigo simply gazed blankly at the man cloaked in black, then down at his own body. With a feeble grunt, he tried to move himself, but it was as if he was rooted to the spot and all of his limbs aside from his neck were frozen.

The man in black continued to stare down at him, expression unchanging. **_"What is your answer, Ichigo?"_**

After a moment more, Ichigo let his head hang down, panting heavily. Between gasps, he finally managed to get out one word.

"Neither."

The man arched an eyebrow. **_"What was that?"_**

Ichigo lifted his head up and managed to draw a shuddering breath as he stared the spirit of his sword dead in the face. "If I live and can't fight…or if I fight, and can't live…it's pointless. One without the other is entirely pointless. So I don't want to just live. I don't want to just fight. I want to win."

His gaze shifted downwards for just a second, and he saw his mother's face, pasted onto the Fisher's lure, smiling at him. His stomach, what was left of it, turned in disgust at the sight of the stem that connected the lure and the Hollow. He wanted to erase that disgusting fake from the very existence of the world. He wanted to teach the Grand Fisher more than anything just what it meant to prey on his family. But, more than anything else, he wanted….

"I want to win!" he yelled. "I want to win!"

The man in black simply continued to regard Ichigo calmly, brown hair hanging around his head like a mossy halo. Then, he smiled. It was a small smile, but a smile nevertheless. He stepped down from the Grand Fisher's head and put his hand on top of Ichigo's left, clutching it and the hilt of the dissolving _zanpakutou, _which was now halfway gone.

"**_You'll have to reach deep within yourself now, Ichigo. My power is hidden there, at the core of your self. With all of that conviction that you just showed to me, call out to that core. Call out to me. Do it!"_**

Ichigo instinctively closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, feeling the strength of the man's grip on his hand.

_Reach deep inside and call out to that core, huh…?_

His breathing slowed even more, and he instinctively concentrated on himself, as if he were trying to summon up Spirit Threads again and sense his own Spiritual Energy at the same time. At first, it felt strange, but gradually, he could feel his pain lessening somewhat, the man's grip growing stronger…and something warm, but forceful, building up within him, like a volcano about to erupt.

"**_You've begun to tap it. Now focus it into the blade. I will try to guide you, but you must concentrate and channel it properly, or you'll fail, and die."_**

Now the pressure within Ichigo was shooting down his left arm in sporadic bursts, causing his hand to tremble and shake. The pain from his wounds was coming back, but he refused to let it distract him in the slightest. He had only one chance, apparently, so he had to make it count, and if he was going to make that happen, he had to do as he had been told.

"Agh…! Come on, dammit! Come on!"

The pulses sped up, and he could have sworn that his arm was going to be ripped apart by the strain. Dimly he realized that it was much like a heartbeat now, and with that realization came an understanding of what he had to do next—with each pulse, he did his level best to "push" the power along, as if he were tuning with the energy sphere.

His _zanpakutou_, which had almost dissolved down to the hilt, gradually began to reform itself, with whole sections rematerializing each time he pushed. When the blade was complete once more, Ichigo felt the biggest surge of power yet, and the old man's grip loosened suddenly.

"**_I can do no more. Now, Ichigo! Finish it!"_**

With a roar, Ichigo sent the last pulse to his blade, and the entire world went back into motion as his Spiritual Energy rapidly converted into a burst of Spiritual Pressure that exploded outwards. The Grand Fisher's mocking laughter trailed away into nothing when it rolled over him, and Rukia's spiritual senses were so bombarded by it that she jerked awake in a cold sweat, ignoring the blood from the bruise that the lure had given her. Confused, she staggered to her feet, clutching Sode no Shirayuki in her left hand, looked to the source of the surge, and gasped.

"Ichigo…?"

The deputy Reaper's _zanpakutou_ was shining such a vivid sky-blue that her eyes watered simply looking at it. Though it was hard to see, the blade itself was changing as well; the length and breadth had decreased quite a bit, closer to the size of a regular sword, but the dull edge was straighter than any _katana _that she had seen before, hers included. The weaving of the handle darkened from red to black. The blue tassels at the end of the hilt wrapped themselves together, and the two knots fused into one, lightening in color to a pure white, with a black, opaque bead binding the new single tassel right below the knot.

When the glow died down, Ichigo slowly raised his transformed weapon and drew it backwards, then thrust it around the lure and into the Fisher's ribcage with a single push. The Hollow screamed in agony, its shrieks growing louder when Ichigo twisted the blade so that the flat of his _zanpakutou_ was parallel to the ground and that so the edge of the blade was facing to the left.

"You were right, earlier," Ichigo said calmly. His brown eyes were glowing with the same light blue aura that had encased his sword earlier, and his Spiritual Pressure was rising by the second. "For every person, there is one being that they can't cut. But this thing in front of me…this thing in front of me, wearing my mother's face, standing in this place where my mother would never be…this thing is _not_ the person that I can't cut!"

He heard a footstep behind him and instinctively knew that the man in black was behind him.

"**_Now, Ichigo," _**the spirit said. **_"You have created my sealed form. To release me, you must give me a command and call out my name." _**He smiled again. **_"I am Zangetsu, Ichigo. Now command me!"_**

Ichigo grinned fiercely and forced another burst of Spiritual Energy into his sword.

"Then…RISE! ZANGETSU!"

The newly named blade seemed to sing out a note of pure joy as its form rapidly changed in an explosion of light. The Grand Fisher choked again as it felt Zangetsu expand and cut into its ribcage even further; when the light faded, it could see that Zangetsu had taken on a form that vaguely resembled a giant cleaver, with a curved, white cutting edge and a black body. The weapon now lacked a guard, and its hilt was simply a pure white cloth wrapping, with one ragged end blowing loosely in the wind.

With another roar, Ichigo pulled the blade to the left, ripping it out of the Grand Fisher and taking a good chunk of the Hollow's body with it. As the Fisher staggered backwards, it pulled its remaining arm out of Ichigo's body, causing him to howl in pain and slam Zangetsu into the ground to lean on and keep himself upright.

"**Where did that power come from?"** the Fisher said, its voice a pathetic, browbeaten whimper. **"That blade…how did it change shape? It's impossible!"** Its lure dangled limply between its eyes as it came to rest against one of the many nearby trees. **"You were a weakling! There's no way that someone like you could kill me!"**

Rukia managed to straighten up despite the pounding headache that she was developing, and slowly walked over to where the Fisher lay dazed and confused.

"Grand Fisher," she said, her voice barely rising above a whisper. "Your time has come."

With that, she brought Sode no Shirayuki up, as if she was going to slice through the Hollow's mask in one blow, but she stopped when she heard Ichigo's ponderous steps behind her.

"I'm gonna have to be a little selfish, Rukia," he said, grimacing for a second as a fresh wave of pain came from his stomach. "Can I…do the honors?"

She simply inclined her head and stepped to the side. "Do as you wish."

With a weary nod, Ichigo took another few steps forward, and took Zangetsu up with both hands, raising it sharply. "Fisher. As much as a pain in the ass as this battle was, I'll say this. Of all the Hollows that Rukia and I have faced…you were…the oldest, the filthiest, and the most irritating of them all."

The Hollow had no time to move or scream before Zangetsu came down on it. As the mask split in half and began to dissolve, the gray clouds above finally began to break, and the rain came down in sheets. On the porch of the shrine where the Kurosaki family had taken cover from the rain, Alfred looked upwards suddenly, as if sensing what had just occurred.

"Did you hear something, Ichi-nii?" Yuzu asked sleepily from her seat next to Karin.

The Soul Candy shook Ichigo's head, as if shaking water out of it, and looked farther upwards, into the raining sky. "No. It was just my imagination, I guess."

* * *

Ichigo sat down with a heavy grunt as Rukia laid her glowing hands on him, finally beginning to seal the wounds he had taken to kill Grand Fisher.

"So, your _zanpakutou _is called Zangetsu…'Slaying Moon', I would assume?" she asked. "And its release command is 'Rise'. That's pretty fitting."

Ichigo managed a smug grin, even though Rukia's ministrations were making his various injuries sting quite a bit. "Yeah. It is." He looked over to the spot where Grand Fisher had been, marked only by whatever blood had spilled from the Hollow's wounds, and then at the various marks of battle left on the ground, namely the stretch of land scorched by Rukia's _Red Fire Cannon._

"Hey. Kuchiki."

She punched him in the uninjured shoulder, very gently. "If you let me get away with calling you Ichigo to your face now, you may call me by my first name as well." Her expression grew somewhat somber. "We've been…comrades long enough by now, have we not?"

"I guess so…Rukia." He shook his head at how unfamiliar it felt to call his 'teacher' by that name, but soon put it out of mind to continue talking. "Anyway. What I was trying to say earlier was…thanks. If it wasn't for you…well, aside from dying right now, I don't think I would've had the strength to make Zangetsu as strong as he's become. I know I was being kind of a prick earlier, telling you to stay out of my fight, but…I really wanted to try and take him down myself. You were right; it was a battle for my pride, but my pride is almost what got me killed."

Rukia nodded and focused her attention on Ichigo's shoulder wound. "You're welcome."

A comfortable silence passed for a while, though the sound of rainfall made it a much 'fuller' silence than normal. Despite himself, Ichigo couldn't help but smile, though it did give way to a wince when Rukia finished with his shoulder and began to knit together the flesh of his wounded stomach. He'd bled for it, but he'd gotten his revenge on the creature that had taken his mother from him.

His smile faded when he realized that he was, in essence, still responsible for his mother's death, even if he hadn't meant to be. If he had been able to tell that the girl was a 'ghost', he probably wouldn't have gone to save her, and his mother in turn wouldn't have gone to stop him.

Eventually, Rukia finished patching Ichigo up and sealed her own head wound. That done, she sighed and stood, clearing her throat. "Ichigo." When he looked up at her, his expression still troubled, she continued. "I should warn you now that we will have to step up our training timetable now that you've gained the ability to perform _shikai_. You have enough control to form a properly sealed sword; therefore, you have enough control to begin learning even more advanced techniques. I imagine that very soon you'll be learning Hakuda, Kidou and Flash Steps on the days that you come to Soul Society, and I may not be the one teaching you those things. You'll need to work just as hard, or you'll bring dishonor to us both."

"Of course I will," Ichigo said, gripping Zangetsu as he stood up. "I got this far, didn't I? Who do you take me for?" He looked down at his sword's new form and twisted his wrist experimentally, pleased that the weight hadn't changed any despite the fact that the sword was easily as long as he was tall. "I don't think this'll fit into my sheath anymore."

Rukia shook her head. "You'll need to re-seal it first before you can worry about that. Concentrate on Zangetsu, and try to pull all of the Spiritual Energy inside of it back into yourself. That should cancel your _shikai_."

Ichigo did as he was told, and the blade returned to its smaller state; the new single tassel at the end of the handle blew slightly in the wind. Even with its reduction in length and width, it was still just shy of matching his height, just as it was when fully released. He then placed it inside of his sheath; it fit, but quite loosely, and he could tell that he would have to get a new sheath or somehow resize the old one. _But how? _

"We'll take care of your blade in Seireitei this weekend," Rukia said, anticipating the question in his mind by looking at his puzzled expression. "For now, you need to go back to your family. I shall meet up with you tomorrow."

Ichigo gave her a cheery two-fingered salute in reply, and for a moment, Rukia saw Ichigo not as himself, but as a man with a similar facial structure and longer, dark hair. The moment passed all too quickly, though, and she couldn't help but smile to herself as she turned away from him.

"Later," he said.

She nodded, still smiling, and vanished in a burst of Flash Steps. Ichigo looked up at the still cloudy sky, and at the raindrops that seemed to pass through him, and then began to jog briskly towards the Spiritual Energy signatures of his little sisters, eager to see them again.

* * *

**6:20 PM**

As the rain continued to come down, Ichigo stopped just short of the shrine where his family was waiting and went to go hide in the bushes, knowing that if he got too close, Karin might see him and start asking questions. Luckily, Karin and Yuzu had fallen fast asleep and Isshin was nowhere to be found. On top of that, Alfred had by all appearances sensed Ichigo or predicted that he was arriving soon—when Ichigo came close, the Soul Candy stood up from the porch of the shrine and quickly moved Ichigo's body down the road and towards the bushes in question.

In the space of a few moments, the Soul Candy explained the situation to Ichigo, telling him that his sisters were fine and simply resting. After that, the strawberry-blonde boy ejected Alfred from his body and re-entered it; he winced as the soreness from his healing carried back over to his physical shell, though thankfully to a lesser degree. Walking around feeling like his stomach was about to spill out of his guts was not a pleasant sensation at all, though being drenched with cold rainwater wasn't too much better. He cast a surreptitious glance at the shrine, and his thoughts turned to Karin and Yuzu for a moment.

Then, he shook his head and closed his eyes, heading off to the area where his mother's gravestone was. It was unpleasant to be in the rain, and he was worried about Karin and Yuzu, but he had to do something else before he went back to what passed for his normal, non-Reaping life.

After a minute or two of walking, he arrived at his destination, and for a time he just stood there, gathering his thoughts. Eventually, he licked his lips and sighed.

"Mom. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that I wasn't strong enough to protect you like I should have. I'm sorry I didn't know the truth about that girl until today."

He clenched his hand into a fist, and it trembled from both the cold and from his growing feelings of self-loathing.

"I'm so sorry for all of that. If I had known any better, you would've been fine."

At length, though, he composed himself, slowing his breaths to focus himself, and managed a small smile, tinged with some bitterness but noticeably less sour than his grimace of a few moments before.

"But at the very least, I think I managed to do right by your memory today. I made him pay, Mom. The bastard that killed you, he can't hurt anyone anymore."

It was then, in the middle of that very personal moment, that a single black umbrella came to hover over Ichigo's head, and when he turned to see who had come up behind him so quietly, he was surprised to see that it was his father, smiling in a much more absentminded, toned-down version of the usual Isshin grin. He'd put on the black suit jacket and black tie that matched the black slacks and white long-sleeved shirt he'd been wearing earlier that day, and he was holding another umbrella in his other hand.

"Hey, Ichigo, what're you doing out here in this rain without an umbrella? You wanna catch a cold?"

"Nah, I just…I just had something to tell Mom," Ichigo said, looking away with his usual scowl; it didn't quite reach his eyes, though, and Isshin and Ichigo both knew that.

"I see. Well, come on. The girls are waiting back at the shrine for us to go." He poked Ichigo in the side with the spare umbrella. "Take this. You get any wetter and Yuzu will have to spend the night in her nursing uniform to take care of your pneumonia."

"I'm fine, Dad."

Isshin's smile widened and the pokes grew faster. "Don't be stubborn, Ichigo. Here, take it!"

"Dad, you have two seconds to stop—"

"Ichigo, come on already! Daddy knows what's best for—"

Ichigo's fist filled Isshin's face before the older man could get out one more word, and mercifully, after Isshin shook the stars out of his eyes, he took the hint and stopped talking (though he noted with satisfaction that Ichigo had taken the umbrella from him and opened it up).

Ichigo, of course, continued to pay his father no mind, and simply looked down at the tombstone, holding the umbrella straight up. It took the clicking and hissing of a lighter starting up to make him snap out of his stupor, and by the time he looked over to his father, Isshin was now taking a small drag from a cigarette in his right hand.

"Hey. I thought you quit doing that when Karin and Yuzu were born."

Isshin seemed to ignore his son's comment at first, but at length he exhaled the smoke and took the cigarette from his mouth. "Sometime back when I first met Masaki, she said that when I smoked my hand looked cool. That was the first and last time she complimented my appearance in any way, shape, or form. I thought it was a weird thing for her to say at the time, though. I mean, seriously, my hand looked cool? 'What about the rest of me? I'm a dashingly handsome bastard, aren't I?' At least that's what I thought back then." He chuckled. "Even though it's been ten years already since her accident—"

"I think you mean six, old man."

Isshin shrugged and smiled, though if Ichigo had been paying attention he might have seen that it wasn't really as playful as it would have been.

"Six, ten, it's only four years. Anyway, as I was saying—"

Ichigo smacked a free palm to his forehead. "You could at least try to remember the year your wife, the love of your life, died, you old fart! Your memory's not that bad yet! Dammit, why are you always like this?"

Isshin pinched the cigarette between his teeth and ruffled his son's hair affectionately. "Now, now, Ichigo, calm down, we're amongst the hallowed spirits of the dead. Don't be so loud or you'll get our family cursed, or something."

Ichigo readied his free hand for another punch, but stopped when he saw Isshin's expression gradually sober up again.

"Now, where was I—right, the cigarette story, that's what I was talking about." He paused for a second, and then shook his head. "Well, I guess it's sort of obvious, but this is how I remember her. Just this one day, every year, I'll light up these stupid cancer sticks just for her." He punctuated the statement with another drag of the cigarette, and sighed. "That's pretty much all there is to it."

Ichigo looked at his father for a while, then back down at Masaki's gravestone. After a few more moments of rain-filled silence, he finally asked a question that had been haunting him for far too long.

"Why is it that no one ever blamed me for what happened to Mom?"

Isshin frowned and looked at his son. "What kind of question is that?"

Ichigo's hands shook as he let the umbrella drop and hunched his shoulders together, refusing to meet his father's eyes. "Don't play that card with me, Dad! I want to know why! If I hadn't been so damn stupid I would've stayed out of trouble and Mom would be perfectly fine. But I had to be the idiot and it's because of me that she's gone. Yet you and Karin and Yuzu, and anyone else that knows, none of you act like I did anything wrong! "

He finally caved to the growing pressure and let a few tears fall, though the rainwater pouring down his face mercifully obscured them from his father's view.

"Do you know…how hard it is to be around you when you laugh and smile like that? If you blamed me, at least…at least it wouldn't be so hard."

Isshin stayed silent after that, and once the rain had filled in that long period of quiet, the elder Kurosaki took another drag from his cigarette and grinned. "Because you didn't do anything wrong, Ichigo. You're not blamed because there's no one to blame."

The calm, reassuring kindness in Isshin's voice managed to pull Ichigo's gaze back up to his father, and he simply stared at Isshin in disbelief as the older man continued to speak.

"Ichigo, one of the reasons I love your mother—not just _loved_, but still love, mind you—is the fact that she was just the kind of woman that would die to protect her son."

As Isshin pulled the cigarette from his mouth again, the rain very slowly began to ease up; Ichigo blinked in surprise and looked up to the sky, but his attention soon turned back to his father when Isshin put the cigarette back in his mouth and rested his now-free hand onto Ichigo's shoulder, squeezing gently.

"You're the guy who she died protecting, so I know she didn't regret it. So long as she didn't, and so long as you remain her son—our son—I don't have reason to blame you or anyone for anything."

Ichigo continued to stare owlishly at his father for a while before Isshin smacked him heartily on the back and yelled, "So cheer up, dammit, and quit being such a pout-faced old man! It's depressing!"

Before Ichigo could vent any of his annoyance on his father, the older Kurosaki was already moving down the path that led back to the shrine, and the rain had slacked to the point that it was barely falling. Without turning back to face his son, Isshin kept walking away, pulling his umbrella down, and kept on talking.

"All I want you to do, Ichigo, is live well," he said. "Live well, age well, go bald well, and die well. Die after I die. Die smiling if you can. If you and I want to face your mother with pride in the afterlife, we'll have to do at least that much. Sadness isn't something that someone young like you should be carrying around on your own. If you're hurting, and you don't think you can shoulder your burdens, you ought to find good people to help you out." He raised a hand in farewell, and a plume of smoke rose up from in front of him. "Since you were in the middle of something, I'll leave you to finish it up and get Karin and Yuzu. We're going to go home together, all of us, and if you're still sulking when we get back here, Daddy's going to have to kick the sadness and angst out of you!"

Ichigo simply looked at his father's back for a while, and then turned briefly to Masaki's gravestone before putting his left hand on top of it and managing a smile, a real, honest one. Then, he looked back towards Isshin, and clenched his right hand into a fist.

"You can try, you crazy old beardo-freak!"

Isshin laughed, and after a moment, Ichigo found himself laughing as well, drowning out the sounds of the oncoming summer evening that were beginning to pop up around them.

_Mom, I avenged you today. But…I'll keep fighting. This Deputy Reaper job, it's my chance to stop what happened to you from happening to anyone else._

_If I can spare as many people that pain as possible, I think I'll be able to do what Dad said, and die smiling._

_Because then I'd know that I spent my life, and, I guess, my afterlife, doing something that would make you proud._

* * *

**Thursday, June 18, 9:15 AM**

**Karakura**** High School, Class 1-3**

With their knowledge of why Ichigo hadn't been at school yesterday and how he was likely to be feeling afterwards, Orihime and Tatsuki had expected Ichigo to skip out on school again, if only to have some time to himself.

Imagine their surprise when he walked in, cool as ever, and slung his bag into his seat, scratching his head idly and returning Keigo and Mizuiro's greetings with a grunt. Despite her surprise, Tatsuki eventually managed to put aside the questions buzzing around in her head and go straight to the source, as it were.

"Ichigo, good to see you today," she said, keeping her voice level as she walked over to his desk. "Feeling better?"

To her surprise, Ichigo didn't answer her with a scowl, but a shrug. "Sort of. I'd really rather not be here, but as annoying as it is to keep up with schoolwork, I have to. I've got grades to maintain."

Tatsuki allowed herself a smile. She knew that though he wouldn't make a big deal out of it, Ichigo was actually very bothered by the way a lot of teachers, barring Ms. Ochi, would often look at him and automatically assume that he was a no-good punk. Of course, the fact that he'd gotten into a fight not long after the start of the school year didn't help that impression, but that had been mostly Ooshima's fault.

"I'm guessing you want to borrow my notes, then? Or will you ask Ms. Ochi what we covered yesterday and go over it yourself?"

Sighing, Ichigo shook his head and gave her a wry look. "We've been friends forever, Tatsuki. Don't you know the answer to that already?"

Tatsuki grinned and narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "I see your point. OK, I'll give you my notes—but you owe me a round at the arcade after school today."

"What, so I can lose to you again? No way in hell!"

"Then you can study the assignment by yourself. Obviously you don't need my help."

"Oh, for the—fine, fine, whatever!"

Keigo grinned widely and coughed into his hand, saying something that sounded suspiciously like "whipped"; Ichigo's response was to grab his erstwhile friend by the neck and put him into a chokehold, leaving Tatsuki to walk back to her desk in a chuckling fit.

Of course, by then, Chizuru had latched onto Orihime and was just about to lay hands on the bubbly girl's sizable assets, prompting Tatsuki to take objection as she usually did—quite violently.

"DAMMIT YOU PERVERT, QUIT GROPING ORIHIME!"

"OW!"

"Tatsuki-chan! That's just a bit too much, don't you think…?"

As the chaos unfolded, Ichigo continued to watch and smile, though he still kept Keigo in the chokehold until the brunet boy called 'uncle'.

It was at times like this, he realized, that as troublesome as school and his life was for him, his friends were the ones that made both of those things less so.

Outside the room, on the other side of the window, Rukia stood in midair and watched all of this with a smile of her own, and then departed.

_Just relax for now, Ichigo. Our work will start soon enough._

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Most of what I have to say this time out is probably eclipsed by the fact that Ichigo has finally gotten Zangetsu._

_And kicked Fisher's butt into the Milky Way (MILKY WAAAAAAAY)._

_With this chapter, I think I can safely say that the first arc of the story (which my notes refer to as the Karakura Arc) is beginning to wrap up. Next chapter is probably the clincher event, though I don't imagine anything monumental will be happening then._

_I've gotten a lot of questions about Aizen, but as I said way back in Chapter 1, I'm being a lot more tight-lipped because I want to try and preserve the suspense. The most I can say is that answers will come in time as to what it is that's been going on with him. Until then you'll just have to wait and read, and it's probably best that you don't ask anymore because I can't tell you anything._

_My prayers and thoughts go out to anyone who may have been affected by the quake over in Japan. I know it's been all over the news and some of you might be sick of hearing about it, but personally speaking I do know someone who could have lost quite a bit of family had it not been for some good fortune, and I'm thankful that everything is OK for him and his family._

_Cultural Notes and Translations: Nothing this time._

_I know it's a short one but I feel like where I stopped was a good place to stop. One of the problems I had in my previous multi-chapter story was the whole matter of pacing (which I've apparently improved on, according to a few comments), and it felt like a lot of chapters just dragged on back then. Letting the natural break stand without any padding is much better for the flow of the story._

_Thanks to everyone that's reviewed, I'm glad to see that you're enjoying this. Hope spring finds and keeps you well. See you in April._

_Till next class,_

_~ZS_


	9. Lesson 9: Intermediate Skill Sets 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 9: Intermediate Skill Sets 101, or Doing More than Sword Swinging_

* * *

**Saturday, June 20, 3:30 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Thirteenth Division Barracks, Captain Ukitake's Office**

The weather was pleasant and balmy in the Seireitei on the afternoon of June 20th. There was a calm breeze blowing throughout the Gotei 13's base of operations. It was a nice contrast to the sweltering heat of Karakura Town for Ichigo, who now sat alongside Rukia in front of captain Ukitake. After the battle with Grand Fisher, Rukia had indeed come to see him on Thursday and Friday, but had given him both days off to catch up with schoolwork and his regular life; as soon as he'd gotten out of school on Saturday, though, she'd been waiting for him at the school gates.

After going home to get Alfred and pull off the body-switch, they had made the journey to Soul Society and emerged outside of the Thirteenth's barracks. Almost immediately, they'd been swarmed by members of the division that had heard about their battle with Grand Fisher; amidst the throng shouting their praises of Ichigo and Rukia, the smaller Reaper had taken Ichigo by the hand and outright bulldozed her way through the crowd, her mouth set in a grim line that suggested to Ichigo that she'd been dealing with this since returning to Soul Society on Thursday.

From there, they'd gone straight to Captain Ukitake's office, and had been sitting there for about a few seconds while Captain Ukitake finished a cup of tea he'd been drinking before they came in. Once the cup in his hands was drained, the white-haired Captain put it down on his wooden desk; a slight breeze blew in from their left, rustling the unfurled wall scrolls that hung behind Ukitake.

"First of all, Kurosaki-kun, I want to congratulate both you and Rukia. The Grand Fisher was a Hollow of some infamy here in Soul Society. Though he wasn't precisely one of the strongest individual Hollows documented, it's a mark of pride for both of you that you worked together and purified him."

Ichigo simply nodded. "Just doing my job, sir, that's all." He looked over his shoulder hesitantly, still feeling the massive gathering of spiritual signatures out in the main part of the division barracks, and then focused back on Ukitake, his face set in a sheepish grimace. "How long has everyone else known, though?"

Ukitake rubbed a temple and shook his head. "By Friday morning, the news had broken, much as I had tried to make sure that only the higher-ranked individuals in the Thirteenth Division were aware of it—which was a mistake, if only because Kiyone can't ever stay quiet."

In the hallway, there was a snickering laugh, followed by what sounded like the breaking of bones in someone's foot and a yelp of pain. For a brief moment, Ukitake considered reminding Kiyone and Sentarou that they couldn't mask their Spiritual Energy from him, and that he'd known that they were there the entire time, but he eventually decided that it would be best to stay on track with the conversation.

"I also see that you've managed to re-form and re-seal your_ zanpakutou_," Ukitake said, looking at the single white tassel and black bead dangling behind Ichigo's shoulder. "We'll get the sheath re-fitted after we meet with the other captains and lieutenants today."

Ichigo blinked. "I'm going to meet all of them at once? What for? I'm not going to be training under _all_ of you now, am I? You told me when we started this that specific captains were going to be teaching me specific things."

Rukia shook her head. "It's more a matter of formal presentation, Ichigo-kun. You have your Shikai_,_ you are ready to move on to the next stage of your training, and it was therefore decided that it was best that you become acquainted with the captains and lieutenants properly."

Though Rukia's sudden shift back to using his name with an honorific hadn't escaped his notice, Ichigo simply shrugged and nodded. "Makes sense, I guess. So, are we going to go to them or will they come here?"

Ukitake straightened his captain's jacket and slowly stood. "They'll come here, and are likely to arrive within a few minutes. It'll be much simpler that way, and then maybe the division will settle down a bit with Captain-General Yamamoto himself being present. He dislikes seeing Reapers not attending to their duties." He briefly looked at the doors, and then sighed, deciding to give up the ghost, as it were. "Kiyone, Sentarou. Could you please stop eavesdropping and make sure that the captains and lieutenants will be received properly at the gate when they come? They'll be here soon."

Two gasps came from the hallway, followed by the distinctive whoosh of Flash Steps; Ukitake allowed himself a smile, though a weary one, and motioned to Ichigo and Rukia. "We need to be in the meeting room before they come inside. This is our division, and so it is our responsibility to be present in the room when they enter." He coughed slightly into his hand, but steadied himself without much visible effort. "Come quickly."

Ichigo saw a flash of concern pass over Rukia's face when Ukitake's cough had come and gone, but didn't get the chance to ask, as she somewhat roughly pulled him along when she fell in step behind her Captain.

He hadn't seen one of Ukitake's famed coughing fits in person yet, but Rukia had told him enough about them to be suspicious of any signs that Ukitake's health was failing. Considering that they were about to have a meeting, having an attack would be the worst thing that could happen to him.

Ichigo frowned as Rukia continued to lead him along. _Though now I have to wonder, just what is it that he's suffering from? _Though he was the son of a practicing doctor and clinician, he hadn't taken any particular interest in his dad's job, so diagnosing even simple things was more than out of his league. Privately, he decided to take some time out to study his father's books whenever he got the chance; maybe it was an actual illness and not some sort of weird spirit disease.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Rukia released him, and quickly shook his head to regain his focus. He, Rukia, and Captain Ukitake were now standing in a large room with a long, low table. Twenty-seven sitting pillows surrounded the tables, and lights encased in paper lanterns hung from the ceiling. With light coming in through the paper-screened walls, however, the lanterns remained unlit.

Captain Ukitake sat down smoothly at the foot of the table closest to them, and motioned to the two pillows on his left and right sides. Rukia immediately took the one to his right, while Ichigo took the one to the left.

"Captain-General Yamamoto will sit across from us, at the head of the table, with his lieutenant," Ukitake said. "All-even numbered division captains and lieutenants will be sitting at his left in ascending order, while all odd-numbered division captains and lieutenants will be sitting at his right in the same ascending order. We are sitting across from him because we are hosting him and the other captains."

Ichigo and Rukia both nodded in understanding, and Ukitake smiled slightly before continuing. "This won't be a long meeting. It's a formality. We're just here to make sure that you understand how your training schedule will work out, and that you know who the captains are. You don't have to worry about anything aside from minding your manners." The white-haired captain eyed Zangetsu in its ill-fitting sheath again, but said nothing. Internally, he found himself wishing that Rukia hadn't given Ichigo a day off yesterday, as at the very least the boy could have come to Soul Society for an hour or so and his sheath could have been properly fixed. Sending the sword with Rukia, even in its sealed state, wouldn't have worked too well, as she would have been weighed down immensely since Zangetsu was Ichigo's _zanpakutou_ and not hers.

Still, it wasn't noticeable unless one looked at it directly, and it was likely to escape the casual interrogation any of the assembled captains would give it.

The rest of Ukitake's thoughts came to a halt as the Spiritual Pressures of his fellow captains came closer to the room. He heard both Ichigo and Rukia shift where they sat and knew that they too had felt the new arrivals. In moments, the twelve captains of the Gotei 13 and their lieutenants, barring Yamamoto and his lieutenant, filed into the room and quickly took their seats without much fuss.

Ichigo casually moved his eyes around to get a glimpse at the group. He recognized Byakuya, Soifon, Matsumoto, and of course Renji, but the others were completely new to him. The tallest Reaper in the entire room, easily eight feet or more in height, was wearing a bucket-like wooden helmet with a thin slit for vision, as well as a pair of arm-length, full-fingered gloves. A tan-skinned man, sitting on the odd-numbered side of the table, wore a semi-opaque pair of goggles over his eyes, white boots and an orange scarf around his neck. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail and seemed to be braided, but it was difficult for Ichigo to tell.

Before the young Reaper could continue his little survey, he felt another pair of Spiritual Pressures entering the room, and everyone stood up as Captain-General Yamamoto walked in, cane in hand. A graying man, sporting a thin black mustache, came in behind him; his lieutenant, Ichigo assumed.

Everyone stood up as Yamamoto made his way around to the head of the table, and then sat down with quiet ease. Once his lieutenant, and everyone else, took their seats, Yamamoto turned his attention to Ukitake's side of the table.

"First and foremost," the Captain-General said. "Officer Kurosaki. I commend you and Officer Kuchiki for your performance against the Grand Fisher." It was, Ichigo noted, the first time Yamamoto had ever called him an "officer" per se. "I imagine you have heard it often enough today, but you must understand that for two unseated officers to defeat a particularly evasive Hollow is somewhat unusual."

Ichigo nodded. "With all due respect, sir, Kuchiki-san was the one that kept me grounded. If it wasn't for her I would've been in trouble. I was pretty injured by the time I managed to fully release my sword."

Yamamoto's eyebrow raised only slightly, enough so that only Unohana, Ukitake, and a captain wearing a triangular straw hat and a cheap pink kimono over his captain's coat, noticed it. "Ah, yes, you achieved Shikai—I did hear about that." Though Yamamoto didn't open his eyes, Ichigo got a feeling of great heaviness from the Captain-General. "You do realize, Kurosaki, that you have been a Reaper for slightly more than a month, and yet, by sealing your sword and discovering your Shikai, you have done something that takes…considerably more time than that. As a result, your training schedule, from this day on, will have to be magnified accordingly."

"I understand, sir."

The steadiness of Ichigo's response eased some of Yamamoto's wariness, though neither the tension nor the relief showed on the old man's face. Instead, he cleared his throat and adjusted his position on the seat. "Before we discuss those matters, you will be formally introduced to the members of the Gotei 13 that you do not know." He looked to his left side, and his lieutenant nodded.

"I am Choujirou Sasakibe, lieutenant of the first division," the mustached man said. His voice was rather calm and suited his appearance perfectly, though his eyes, a curious golden color, were somewhat hawkish and piercing.

At Yamamoto's left, Soifon simply turned to meet Ichigo's eyes. He noticed that her hard gaze had changed, but only barely; there was no particular annoyance in her eyes now when she looked at him. "Soifon—Captain of the Second Division and Commander-in-Chief of the Stealth Force. I will teach you _Hakuda _and Flash Steps."

The man at her side, easily twice her height, bedecked with a purple collar around his neck and a golden bracelet on his right wrist, brushed a few crumbs from his mouth and grinned. His dark hair was short, but styled rather unusually—his sideburns were large and slicked out into spikes, as was the back of his hair, and there was a small spike at the top of his head. "Marechiyo Oomaeda, lieutenant of the Second Division and Corps Commander of the Stealth Force's Patrol Corps."

Across the table from Soifon and Oomaeda, a silver-haired man with a short haircut nodded cheerfully at Ichigo and smiled. Much like Yamamoto, his eyes were closed, but in such a way that Ichigo was reminded of a fox's face, and his tone was cloying and sly. "Gin Ichimaru, Third Division's captain."

A mournful looking blonde at Ichimaru's side nodded; his left eye was covered by his hair, and his hair reached just past his shoulders in the back, where it split into two distinct parts. "Izuru Kira. Third Division's lieutenant."

Unohana smiled beatifically at Ichigo from where she sat across from Ichimaru and Kira. "Retsu Unohana, Captain of the Fourth Division. It's a pleasure, Kurosaki-kun."

"Isane Kotetsu, Fourth Division Lieutenant," said the tall, silver-haired girl that sat next to Unohana. Two strands of her hair were braided on the right side of her head, and hung down loosely, and she wore a pair of long red earrings in her earlobes, one for each ear.

Next was the man with shaggy, short brown hair and square-frame glasses that sat across from Unohana and Isane. "I'm Sousuke Aizen, Captain of the Fifth Division." He smiled calmly and inclined his head. "A pleasure to meet you, Kurosaki-kun."

"Momo Hinamori," added Aizen's small, black-haired lieutenant; she wore a simple covering over the bun in her hair. "Fifth Division's Lieutenant. I'll be one of the two people teaching you _Kidou_."

Byakuya simply looked at both Ichigo and Rukia before he spoke. "Byakuya Kuchiki, Captain of the Sixth Division."

Beside Byakuya, Renji casually adjusted his goggles. "Renji Abarai, lieutenant of the Sixth."

The bucket-helmeted man spoke next, his voice deep and resounding even within his odd headgear. "Sajin Komamura, captain of the Seventh Division."

Komamura's lieutenant wore a pair of handle-less black sunglasses and sported a rather unique haircut—his dark hair was styled into a sort of straight-cut flat-top, with a sharp, inverted widow's peak. His robes were loose enough to show a set of bandages wrapped around his waist, similar to the _sarashi _that the samurai once wore; the hilt of his _zanpakutou _could clearly be seen stuck out of the wrappings, and Ichigo wondered just how small the man's blade had to be to fit there comfortably. "Tetsuzaemon Iba, Seventh Division's lieutenant," the man said.

The captain wearing the straw hat nodded, brushing aside a lock of wavy brown hair that had fallen in front of his left eye. His cheeks were lightly dusted with unshaven fuzz, and his right eye was closed rather casually. "I'm Shunsui Kyouraku, Captain of the Eighth Division. It's nice to meet you, Ichigo-kun. We'll work together pretty well, I know it."

The dark-haired, blue-eyed woman at his side nodded once, habitually adjusting her thin-framed glasses. "Nanao Ise, lieutenant of the Eighth Division. I am your second _Kidou _instructor."

On Ichigo's left, the man wearing goggles spoke up next. It was at that point that Ichigo realized that this Captain's robes had no sleeves at all. "Kaname Tousen. I am the Captain of the Ninth Division."

Tousen's lieutenant had dark hair styled similarly to Ichigo's, with three scars running down the right side of his face, over his eye. A tattoo with the number 69 rested on his left cheek, and above that was a blue rectangular tattoo that ran from the bridge of his nose to the side of his face. He wore a choker and a matching armband on his right bicep, and like his captain, his robes were sleeveless. "Shuuhei Hisagi, Lieutenant of the Ninth Division."

Next was a white-haired boy, who looked no older than twelve or thirteen. Given that, he appeared rather mismatched sitting next to Rangiku, but the cool gaze of his blue-green eyes made clear what his appearance did not—he was not a child. "Toushirou Hitsugaya, Captain of the Tenth Division."

Rangiku simply smiled, brushing back her red-blonde tresses and winking at Ichigo. "Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto, of the Tenth Division. It's good to see you again, Ichigo-kun. You've been keeping well, I see."

On the odd-numbered side of the table, a tall, muscular man with an eye patch over his right eye frowned somewhat. He had no eyebrows and his hair was styled into tall black spikes with bells at the tip of each one; a single long scar ran from the tip of his scalp, down over his right eye, and to his jaw. His white captain's coat was especially ragged looking, and Ichigo got the distinct feeling that this captain was most definitely not the easygoing sort.

"Kenpachi Zaraki. Captain of the Eleventh Division," the Captain said, his voice low and guttural. "I'm gonna be teaching you how to swing that little butter knife of yours for real."

Ichigo gulped somewhat quietly at that; Kenpachi wasn't actively threatening him per se, but something about the way the massive man carried himself made Ichigo worry. Before he could start to wonder just how badly Kenpachi would maul him in the name of training, a flash of pink at Kenpachi's shoulder caught his attention. He looked up and saw that there was a small, pink-haired girl sitting on Kenpachi's left shoulder, smiling cheerfully.

"I'm Yachiru Kusajishi. I'm Kenny's lieutenant in the Eleventh. Nice to meet ya, Icchi!"

Despite himself, Ichigo felt his face twitch at the sudden nickname he was given, and both Ukitake and Kyouraku had to stifle laughs at the sight of his grimacing expression.

Unbothered by this, the only captain that had yet to introduce himself cleared his throat, drawing Ichigo's attention back to the even-numbered side of the table. The first thing that Ichigo noticed was the captain's face paint—stark white except for a black area in the middle of his face, and even then his nose was white instead of black. Three golden, stubby cones were on his face, one on each ear and one on his chin, and he wore an odd hat that wrapped around his head and had two pointed ends off to his right. To complete the completely bizarre appearance, he had a large purple scarf around his neck.

"President of the Department of Research and Development, and Captain of the Twelfth Division, Mayuri Kurotsuchi," he said, smiling at Ichigo—though the smile was more like he was baring his teeth. "May I ask you to stop by my Division a little bit later? I'm rather curious about the performance of that Suppression Band you're wearing and I'd like to measure it in person."

Ichigo silently looked over at Ukitake and Rukia without turning his head, his eyes pleading with them for a way out. Something about Kurotsuchi rubbed him the wrong way, and even if the power-suppressing armband that still clutched Ichigo's bicep had been invented by Kurotsuchi himself, something told the young Reaper that letting the Twelfth Division's captain near him would've been a bad idea.

Ukitake saw the desperation in Ichigo's eyes, but couldn't say anything with all eyes facing in their direction; the best he could do was smile consolingly, which gave Ichigo no peace of mind at all. Next to Mayuri, a girl with dark hair and a braid, as well as distinctive green eyes, shifted quietly on her cushion. She wore a red choker, and the shoulders of her robes were puffed up slightly; the bottom of her robe was more like a skirt, ending well above her knees.

"Nemu Kurotsuchi, Vice President of the Department of Research and Development and Lieutenant of the Twelfth Division," she said, her voice quiet and emotionless.

After that, the room fell silent, and Ichigo took the opportunity to make a show of faith. He stood up, bowed deeply, and after coming out of the gesture, said, "Ichigo Kurosaki, of Karakura Town. Deputy Soul Reaper. Thank you for welcoming me into the Gotei 13. Please treat me well."

With that, he sat back down again, and Yamamoto nodded approvingly. "Ichigo Kurosaki. Understand that as of now, you are subordinate to the Captains and Lieutenants of all divisions in Soul Society. If they give you an order you are honor-bound to obey it. Disobedience cannot and will not be tolerated. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Now, for the matter of your training schedule. You will cycle between concepts every weekend, and practice the concept that you were taught over the week in addition to continuing your patrols with Officer Kuchiki. For instance, starting tomorrow, you will be working with Captain Soifon,and you are to work on whatever concepts that she teaches you until next weekend, when you will be learning_ Kidou. _You will then spend the following week practicing that skill, and so on."

"I understand, sir, but I'd also like to point out that my summer vacation is coming up," Ichigo said. "I think that I might be able to actually be present here more frequently after July 20th. Do you think you can work with that?"

"It is possible. We will look into adjusting the schedule that time, and not before. We will work out the details amongst ourselves and you will be notified accordingly." Yamamoto then looked over the entire table. "If anyone has any objections or questions, voice them now."

Most of the captains and lieutenants looked at each other and said nothing, cementing the next course of action in Yamamoto's mind. "Very well then, that matter is settled. Now, those that are going to be teaching Officer Kurosaki, prepare your plans accordingly on your own time. Officer Kurosaki, Officer Kuchiki, you are dismissed. Continue to train as you see fit for the rest of the day."

Ichigo and Rukia nodded and quickly excused themselves; as soon as they were both gone and out of earshot, Kenpachi rolled his shoulders idly, rocking Yachiru slightly and unintentionally.

"Kid's got potential," he said. "He's pretty polite and all that other crap I don't care about, but he's got something in him, something good. It'll be a trip making him a decent fighter."

"He has matured somewhat since last I saw him," Soifon said. Her face was set into enough of a grimace that it was plain to see how uncomfortable she was with acknowledging that increased maturity. "Still, I doubt he will take as quickly to my lessons as he did to Officer Kuchiki's. Begging pardon, Captain-General, but are you sure that he will be able to keep up with me and the others when it comes to lessons?"

Yamamoto turned to look at her but didn't open his eyes any wider. "He will have to. There is no other alternative. Unless you propose that we seal his powers away after already accepting him into our ranks."

"Speaking of powers," Kurotsuchi said, his mouth twisting into a bare-toothed grimace. "I know I was not the only one that sensed it. Even with the Suppression Band on, that boy was still leaking Spiritual Energy the way cheap lanterns leak oil! That Kuchiki girl should have brought him to see me earlier, so that I could have adjusted it to properly suppress his power!"

"How certain are you that his power was so uncontrolled?" Kyouraku asked, adjusting his hat slightly. "You of all people, I imagine, would want to use some form of machine to confirm that, and not your own senses."

"I would, yes, but thanks in part to some of the restrictions you all have placed on me it would be rather difficult to do that," Kurotsuchi said, sucking one of his teeth in annoyance. _At least it would be difficult to do overtly, _he thought to himself. "At any rate, Captain Ukitake! I demand that you send him to me post-haste so that I can take care of him. Lord knows what kind of effect he'll have on the living world if I don't adjust that band as soon as possible."

"I'll send him along shortly," Ukitake said, frowning slightly, "as long as you return him in one piece. We all know your reputation, Kurotsuchi, and I would take great exception if he were harmed."

Kurotsuchi scoffed and began to speak again, but Yamamoto rapped his cane against the floor to silence them both. "Be quiet, both of you. Kurotsuchi, I will leave the matter of this Suppression Band to you, but if Kurosaki does not come back in perfect health and the way you received him, you will be punished."

"His sheath needs to be fixed as well," Komamura said, turning his head to look at Yamamoto. "It seems that his sword prior to his Shikai was much larger than what he has now."

Ukitake bowed his head and coughed slightly, drawing a concerned look from Unohana and Kyouraku, then looked back up at the other Captains. "It was rather large at first. If he had been able to come here earlier in the week I would have taken care of it myself. As it was, I intended to send him along to get it fixed today."

Yamamoto simply looked in Kurotsuchi's direction, and the painted-faced captain briefly let his grimace grow wider before sighing. "Yes, yes, I'll take care of that as well. However, I must _respectfully_ insist that the boy is brought to me today, before he's sent back to his town, unless you want a host of spiritually empowered humans running around his city and causing more trouble for us."

"Shall I go and prepare your equipment, Mayuri-sama?" Nemu asked quietly.

Kurotsuchi didn't even bother to turn and face his lieutenant when he answered her question. "Yes, you might as well. And make sure everything's properly calibrated this time, fool girl, or it'll be your head!"

Unfazed by the threat, Nemu bowed to him, then to the others, before taking her leave. Kurotsuchi watched her go only briefly before turning his attention back to the other captains, ignoring the disdainful or annoyed gazes cast his way by the other captains.

"Are there any other matters to discuss?" Yamamoto asked. "If not, then you are all dismissed, save for Ukitake, Kyouraku, and Unohana. Again, those that are training Kurosaki, develop your programs now. I want to see a report on them as soon as you have formulated them, before you train him. Am I understood?"

The captains and lieutenants gave varying forms of assent.

"Good." Yamamoto rapped his cane again. "Dismissed!"

There was little more than a rustling of cloth as the captains that weren't asked to stay departed with their lieutenants. Both Isane and Nanao gave questioning looks to their captains, and then to Yamamoto; Kyouraku merely smiled and waved Nanao off, while Unohana nodded. The two women then inclined their heads and left.

"So, old man Yama," Kyouraku said, straightening himself up slightly, "what's the deal? Something's bugging you."

"I am simply concerned about the boy's growth," Yamamoto replied, allowing a bit of annoyed indignation to color his tone as he gripped his staff tighter. "I knew of his potential thanks to Captain Kuchiki and my own assessment of his power when I first met him, but I was not expecting this." He paused, stroking his beard in thought. "We did gain an unusual asset in him, but he must be monitored. If his power grows too unchecked, we may have to do whatever is necessary to keep things in balance, and that includes removing his powers, should it come to that. I doubt that Central 46 would look favorably on him, or us, if he were to accidentally empower other regular humans."

"I believe that Captain Kurotsuchi will come up with a suitable solution to this problem," Unohana said. "Though I am not particularly fond of the man's methodology in the best of situations, he is intelligent enough to do what he's been asked to do, and do it well. I think that Kurosaki-kun will not need to have his powers removed."

"But now the question becomes whether or not Kurosaki-kun's already had an effect on the human world, considering what his power levels are like now," Ukitake said. "It may be Captain Kurotsuchi's opinion that there has been an effect, but we have no way of knowing for certain just how much exposure would be enough to cause such changes in ordinary people. As far as I know that's never been researched."

Kyouraku fiddled with one of the flower hairpins in the band that kept his loose, low-hanging ponytail together. "And it's not like we can expect him to tell us that his friends did gain powers of their own, if that was to happen all of a sudden. Not if he knows that it would get him or his friends into trouble with the 46. We wouldn't be able to hide it from the 46 either, not without risking our own necks, and if they were to find out, who's to tell what they could decide for him or for us?"

"Let's not speak of possibilities," Yamamoto said, slightly hardening his voice. "As I said, I will do whatever is necessary to preserve the balance, but if we do not need to harm anyone, human or not, to do that, we will not—within reason." He stood up with an ease that contrasted his apparent age, and began to make his way out of the meeting room. "We will monitor the situation as it evolves and react accordingly when we need to. You three are dismissed."

Ukitake frowned quietly to himself as his mentor left the room, and then put a hand to his mouth as a wave of coughs hit him. Unohana was at his side immediately, gripping his hand with a medic's steady hand.

"Ukitake-san. Did you forget to take your medicine by any chance?"

Between coughs, Ukitake shook his head weakly, and Unohana's mouth turned into a slight frown, causing Ukitake and Kyouraku both to flinch. "Come, let's get you somewhere where you can rest," she said, her voice firm and allowing no argument. "Kyouraku-san. Would you kindly help me?"

Kyouraku was at their side in a heartbeat, and assumed most of Ukitake's weight on one shoulder as Unohana took the rest. It didn't take long for them to get out into the hallway, and thankfully no one was there to see them lead Ukitake to the private Ugendou Quarters set aside for his own use in recuperating from his coughing attacks.

Once Ukitake was put to bed, he managed to ask Unohana and Kyouraku to take Ichigo to the Twelfth Division before Unohana gave him another dose of medicine and used a _Kidou _to force him to sleep. They then left him in order to find Ichigo and Rukia, planning to tell Rukia where they'd left Ukitake so that no one would be looking for him.

"He should have taken a nap after taking his medicine earlier today," Unohana said to Kyouraku as they walked back through the main barracks and towards the training yard. "I specifically told him that the medicine works best when he gives it time to run through his system, and it cannot do that if he insists on being up and about when he doesn't need to be."

"Shirou was always a hard worker, Retsu-chan," Kyouraku said, shrugging calmly. "As long as I've been his friend I've been hard-pressed to talk him out of something once he really sets his mind to getting it done."

Unohana shook her head and sighed, but finally managed to smile just a little bit, pulling her mouth out of the thoughtful line it had assumed since they'd put Ukitake to bed. "I suppose that's why he makes such a great captain."

Kyouraku would have responded if they hadn't arrived at the doors that led outside, but as much as he would have liked to tease Unohana about something he had been suspecting for a while in regards to her and Ukitake, he knew that he'd get on her bad side in an instant and no force on Earth or Soul Society could help him if he did that.

When the two captains stepped outside, they saw Ichigo and Rukia sitting cross-legged on the ground with their respective zanpakutou lying across their laps. While both of them had their eyes closed, Rukia was totally immobile, while Ichigo was fidgeting, twitching, and scowling in annoyance.

"Ah, Jinzen," Kyouraku said with his usual light smile. "Poor Ichigo-kun seems to be having trouble reaching the right state of mind."

Ichigo's eyes snapped open at that, and he stared groggily at Kyouraku and Unohana before shaking the stars out of his vision. "Huh? Captain Kyouraku…and Captain Unohana, right? When did you two get here?"

"Only just now, Kurosaki-kun," Unohana replied. "I see that Kuchiki-san decided to teach you Jinzen. Were you having difficulty getting into your inner world?"

"Yeah, kind of," Ichigo said, standing up and awkwardly sheathing his zanpakutou in its mismatched sheath. "I felt like I was on the border of getting inside, but I kept thinking about that Kurotsuchi guy and I couldn't concentrate."

Kyouraku chuckled. "Ah, yes. In some circles I hear him being called 'Captain Clown-face'. I don't blame you for being afraid, Ichigo-kun. The man's not known for his self-restraint."

"And speaking of Captain Kurotsuchi," Unohana said smoothly, to interrupt any other horror stories Kyouraku was thinking of telling, "it is time for you to go see him. I will escort you to the Twelfth Division and make sure he does not do anything to you that I cannot fix."

"Wouldn't it be more proactive to just make sure he doesn't do anything to me at all besides what he was told to do?" Ichigo asked, looking off to the side with a grimace.

"As I said, Ichigo-kun, the man's not known for his self-restraint," Kyouraku said. "He may follow orders, but that's in part lip service. If he can get away with anything even when under orders, he'll usually give it a shot and not feel bad about it."

Ichigo suddenly began to break out into a cold sweat, and Kyouraku laughed heartily at his discomfort. "Now, now, don't worry. Retsu-chan will be there so there shouldn't be any problems. Even Kurotsuchi knows better than to cause trouble with her about."

"As do you, Kyouraku-san. Now stop worrying Kurosaki-kun, please," Unohana said, and though she smiled, Ichigo suddenly felt a chill race down his spine, and Kyouraku's grin became smaller and more fragile-looking.

"Of course," Kyouraku said, coughing suddenly as if he'd caught something in his throat. "Now, Ichigo-kun, go on ahead with Captain Unohana. I seriously guarantee your safety."

"What about you?" Ichigo asked.

Kyouraku's gray eyes became slightly downcast. "I need to tell Rukia-chan here that Juushirou is resting in the Ugendou. He had another one of his attacks." Ichigo's brows shot up in surprise, and Kyouraku continued, "We tried looking for his lieutenants but we didn't run into them, so we figured we'd tell her instead." The captain looked down at the small Kuchiki 'princess' and sighed. "She'll need to come out of Jinzen on her own, though. I don't need to be anywhere, so I can wait on her until then."

For a minute, Ichigo considered going off to find Kiyone or Sentarou by himself, but Kyouraku seemed more than serious enough this time. "Well, all right, if you're sure everything's under control."

"Come, Kurosaki-kun," Unohana said, gently grasping his shoulder. "We'll be traveling by Flash Steps. It's simpler that way."

Ichigo had just enough time to groan and turn slightly green before he and Unohana disappeared with the ever-familiar whoosh of speed. Kyouraku shook his head and chuckled again, then headed over to a nearby tree and sat down, leaning his back against the bark and tilting his hat downwards a bit.

"Ichigo Kurosaki…yes, he's a good kid. I like him already."

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Argh. I got blocked hard on this one for a while, and then real life got in the way, and then STUFF._

_I'll try to have the next chapter out on time, but I will probably have to do a triple update in May to compensate for missing the next update that's supposed to be in this month. I also let it stop where it did in part because this chapter did a lot, and in part because it was beginning to drag on with the plan I originally had for it. That means my original plan to end the Karakura Arc with this chapter was more or less a load of HOKEY and I should've known better than to say so._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_Jinzen—literally meaning "blade Zen", this is a mediation technique used for communing with one's Zanpakutou in the inner world. It is considered a moderately advanced technique, but is extremely effective for making contact with a Zanpakutou and is a time-tested method for developing skill and power._

_All right. I'll do my best, but real life is once again at my throat so there is a very good chance I won't see you all until May, with three updates. If not, then in a few days I'll have Chapter 10 for you, which should close out this introductory arc for good since I've covered enough narrative ground here._

_Till next class,_

_~Zero-Sennin_


	10. Lesson 10: Human Exorcism 101, Pt 1

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 10: Human Exorcism 101, pt.1, or Spirits Are Sometimes Against You_

* * *

**Sunday, June 21, 1:30 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Near Soukyoku Hill**

Beads of sweat rolled down Ichigo's brow as he leapt from branch to branch within the forest where Soifon had taken him to train today, in the near vicinity of the Soukyoku Hill where he had first arrived in Soul Society at a time that now seemed years away. The canopy of trees was moderately dense, so enough light shone down for him to see what he was doing, but seeing wasn't his main problem right now.

Thanks in no small part to the re-tuned and re-tooled armband wrapped around his bicep, Ichigo was straining to keep pace with Soifon's small, lithe figure, close enough for him to see her white Captain's jacket and braids but nowhere near close enough to touch her. Captain Kurotsuchi's modifications to the device had further cut back his Spiritual Energy, reducing him to what the clown-faced captain estimated to be a fourth of his overall reserve. In turn, his overall physical ability had been reduced to that level as well. It was definitely greater than his human body's capabilities by far, but it was much less than what he was used to.

The pressure of the band against his straining muscles inadvertently drew his mind back to the events of the day before, when he had been in Captain Kurotsuchi's lab.

* * *

**Saturday, June 20, 3:40 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Twelfth Division Barracks, one of Captain Kurotsuchi's Many, Many Labs**

_Thanks to Kyouraku, Ichigo had been expecting the captain's lab to be a dreadful and frightening place, full of torturous tools meant for dissection and investigation of all things spirit-biological, or something to that effect._

_To his surprise, it was a rather plain place, with stark white walls, though the dim lighting somewhat toned down what might've been an overtly bright setting. There were plenty of sharp, bladed machines and other instruments, yes, but there were a number of beakers sitting on the cool black desktops, as well as a fairly large computer and keyboard console where Captain Kurotsuchi was currently standing. Kurotsuchi had used some kind of odd, security wand-like device to check Ichigo's energy levels, taken off the armband, and repeated the process._

_Shortly afterwards, Kurotsuchi had taken a needle with a clear liquid within it, injected it into the armband, and waited for a while before re-attaching it to Ichigo's arm. In moments, Ichigo felt his Spiritual Energy drop much more than it had when the band was on before, and had said something to that effect._

_"Yes, you'll have to adjust, but ultimately, it's better that the limit is set so low from now," Captain Kurotsuchi said, his back turned to both Ichigo and Unohana as he continued entering information into a project database he had just started, specifically to chart Ichigo's growth and overall power. "You were leaking enough energy that you were bound to start causing trouble in Karakura sooner or later, or at least more than you've caused already."_

_"How are you even sure that those smaller Hollows were my fault?" Ichigo asked, rubbing the armband with a grimace; the adjustments hadn't changed its size in the slightest, but its grip seemed even tighter. While Kurotsuchi's back was turned, he had taken it off to examine both sides, and now he had to constantly try to force the image of the numerous gnashing mouths that had…somehow been added to the interior of the device out of his mind. "I've already been told that Karakura Town happens to have a large concentration of Spirit Particles. Wouldn't that make the whole town more attractive to Hollows in general if everything spiritual is made out of those?"_

_Kurotsuchi tossed a disinterested glance over his shoulder at Ichigo, then waved his hand irreverently, revealing the extra-long nail on his right middle finger (how is he typing with that? Ichigo wondered). "You're making a common, foolish assumption. Yes, souls are made of Spirit Particles, and Hollows do consume them both. In theory, Karakura's status as spiritually saturated ground should call more of them there. However, a soul's concentration of particles is much more appetizing to Hollows. They can live off of what's in the air if there are enough Spirit Particles, but they prefer souls, and as stupid as most un-evolved Hollows are they know the difference between a few loose particles and a strong spiritual presence. And even if you hadn't been flying around with your armband off half the time as you've said—"_

_"I said I took it off in extreme emergencies only and put it right back on when I was done! Geez, don't twist my words around!"_

_"—the fact of the matter is that you possibly had more than enough presence to attract maybe one or two of those Hollows on your own," Kurotsuchi said, ignoring Ichigo's outburst as he kept typing. "We can't rule out any possibilities, not if you don't want to be responsible for getting some innocent Plus eaten alive or something." He then looked up from the computer, towards another door in his laboratory, and yelled, "Nemu! Blast it, you stupid girl, what are you doing! It doesn't take ten minutes to resize a sheath for a zanpakutou, this isn't the Dark Ages! Hurry up and get out here or you'll be sorry!"_

_In less than ten seconds, Nemu stood before Kurotsuchi with her head bowed and Zangetsu in her hands. Despite what he'd been told about his sword being heavy for anyone else besides him, Nemu carried Zangetsu without much trouble. Kurotsuchi paid no mind to the hidden expression that his lieutenant wore and slapped the back of her head soundly, causing Ichigo to bristle and Unohana to sigh and look away with a frown marring her face._

_"Took you long enough. Give the boy his weapon. It's high time for him to go."_

_Wordlessly, Nemu did as she was told, giving Zangetsu over to Ichigo. The new sheath was a black one, and looked very much like the standard sheath for a katana, and the large brown strap and buckle had become significantly slimmed down in size. Ichigo accepted it without hesitation, slinging it over his shoulder and tightening the strap so that the sheathed weapon was secure, and asked, "Your name's Nemu, right?"_

_The girl looked up at him as her response, and when her eyes met his, he grinned just a bit. "Thank you. I really appreciate it."_

_Nemu nodded once, curtly, and turned back to Kurotsuchi. "By your leave, Captain, I'll prepare the experiments in Labs 7, 9, and 18."_

_Kurotsuchi made a sound in his throat that sounded a lot like stones grinding together. "Go ahead then! Do it quickly, I'm almost done here and I won't be kept waiting because of your ineptitude."_

_Nemu bowed and disappeared, and Kurotsuchi finally turned to face Ichigo for the first time in several minutes. "Now, you've got your sword and your new Suppression Band. You're done here. I'm telling you right now that you'd best leave the band on unless you're really and truly going to die, or you'll be causing more trouble for all of us. Also, tell that Kuchiki girl or whoever teaches you Kidou that you need to start learning spiritual suppression exercises. If you don't you'll have to come in about once or twice a month to have the band adjusted or receive a few experimental treatments that will more than likely cripple your spiritual energy levels and keep you under control." He twisted his mouth back into a crude facsimile of a smile. "I'll try to make it not hurt if you decide to come in for the treatments, but odds are high that you'll be in a lot of pain if you do."_

* * *

Ichigo shuddered bodily as the memory finally left his mind, but he was brought back to reality only when he miscalculated a step and flung himself into a tree. Barking out several obscenities at the top of his lungs, he yanked his face out of the bark and blinked away the midday stars floating in his vision. Though his steps on the branch were unsteady and tottering, he managed to not slip and fall to the forest floor below.

"Fool. Did you actually run into a tree?"

Soifon's voice coming from behind him nearly caused Ichigo to jump a mile out of his skin, but he was saved from a very painful trip from the tree when a small hand firmly planted itself on his back, keeping him upright. With several more muttered curses and a sigh, Ichigo finally got control of his body, and turned to face Soifon.

He had to stare over her head for a few seconds before realizing that he was staring over her head, and quickly looked down to meet her gray eyes with a hasty cough. To her credit, Soifon kept her face neutral, either refusing to acknowledge the unintended insult or simply not caring.

"Your stamina is better than I expected even with a good chunk of your power inaccessible," she said. "Still, not good enough for my tastes. You are easily distracted and you were still struggling to keep pace with me when I was running at about a quarter of my maximum speed. I want you to do at least an hour of sprints per day this week. Go at least five to ten miles in each hour, at this speed, and do not stop. Once this…summer break of yours from school starts, we'll be doubling the distance and keeping the same timeframe here in this forest."

Ichigo nodded his understanding, though he couldn't help but grimace at the veiled insults to his lack of concentration and how he hadn't been able to keep up with the Second Division's Captain when she'd been purposely holding back a good chunk of her actual speed. Soifon studied his face intently for a moment before leaping down to the forest floor without a moment's pause. "Come. We're going to go over the basics of Flash Steps, and then go to Hakuda from there."

Ichigo leapt down to join her on the ground, and once he had straightened up and given his attention to Soifon, she turned away and looked up into the trees.

"What do you think a Flash Step is, Kurosaki?"

Ichigo briefly thought back to the multiple experiences he'd had with Flash Steps, and at length, shrugged. "If I had to guess…it's like teleporting, almost. You're moving from one spot to another almost instantly, probably by using Spiritual Energy or Pressure."

Soifon shook her head, making a thoughtful humming noise. "That was a fairly decent guess, if…incorrect." She turned to Ichigo and folded her arms across her chest. "Flash Steps are not about 'teleportation'. It's a matter of concentrating effort, so to speak. On the most basic level, when one Flash Steps, they are briefly concentrating large amounts of their Spiritual Pressure inside of their bodies, and then releasing that Pressure to propel them forward. The spiritual body cannot maintain this strain for extended periods of time without training, and that is why less skilled users will tend to drop in and out of Flash Steps when traversing long distances, like so."

Without warning, Soifon Flash Stepped away, and Ichigo was able to see a black blur reappear shortly at the other side of the meadow where they stood before she was back before him in another step.

"Had I wanted to I easily could have spanned that distance and come back again in one set of steps," she said. "Most of the other captains can at least match that speed with ease, the exception being Zaraki since he cannot control that monstrous torrent of Spiritual Energy that he has. His physical fitness more than makes up for it, in some regards, but if he could be bothered to make space in his brain for it then he would undoubtedly be more effective."

Ichigo scratched his head. "So he relies on pure muscle speed to move quickly? That's nuts." After a moment of thought, he asked, "Does that mean he can't keep up with you or the other captains in terms of speed?"

Soifon sighed. "He can somewhat. He uses raw muscle power to compensate, mostly. But it is not efficient and he would not get away with it if he didn't have the Spiritual Energy he does." She shook her head in annoyance. "We're getting off track. This is the point I was trying to make—using Flash Steps means controlling your Spiritual Energy, converting it to Spiritual Pressure, and using that Spiritual Pressure to boost your speed. So, despite the name of the technique, there is very little, if any, actual stepping involved. At most, a few regular steps can be taken to build up momentum, but that would be it." She looked up into his face with her brows drawn in a hard line. "Please tell me that you at least know how to generate Spiritual Pressure."

Ichigo's response was to inhale and exhale quietly before summoning the mental image of pure power blasting from all over his body, as Rukia had taught him yesterday after his failed attempts at entering Jinzen. As he did so, he felt the weight of his own Pressure settling in the air around them. It wasn't a very large amount of Pressure that he managed to vent, but it was enough for Soifon to feel.

"One less thing I have to waste time teaching you, then," Soifon said, still unsmiling. "What you need to do now is vent that Pressure from the back of your body, as you run. It's that simple."

Ichigo nodded once and immediately flared up his Spiritual Pressure again. Once it settled in the air around him, he tried to draw it in and focus it on his body specifically, so that he could then blast it out behind him. Slowly, but surely, he felt his skin tingle and buzz as the veil of Pressure settled over his body.

"That's precisely it. But don't move. Let it dissipate, slowly."

Ichigo's brows scrunched together. "Why? Shouldn't I try to vent it out like you said?"

"You master this part of the skill first, and then you learn how to force your Pressure to vent out," Soifon said, shaking her head. "All of that you did just now? Three seconds in total, maybe more. In a combat situation, that's enough to get you killed. Do it five more times, and do it quickly. Start now!"

The bark in her voice made Ichigo jump, but he did as he was told, gathering and dispelling Spiritual Pressure as quickly as he could. Despite his best efforts, his breathing and his manipulation of his Pressure remained uneven the entire time, and by the time he was done with the last rep of gathering and dispersing Pressure, his forehead was beading with sweat and he felt a severe spiritual drain the likes of which he hadn't felt before. His dismay only grew when he saw Soifon casually stretch her neck and arms before allowing the first smile that he'd ever seen her with, though it was more like a smirk to be totally honest. It was tight and predatory, completely fearless, and surprisingly eager.

"Better than I would've expected from a beginner, but you're still too slow," she said, allowing the smirk to fade. "I expect you to practice that, in addition to those sprints, on your own, for an hour each day this upcoming week." She rolled her neck again, and shrugged her shoulders lightly. "Now, come. We'll spar for a minute or two, and then you have to continue practicing your venting technique. After that, we'll alternate between the two exercises until I say so. And if you slow down in the slightest, I'll double up the session length."

Ichigo quickly shrugged Zangetsu off of his shoulders and took a stance of sorts, bending his right arm in so that his hand was in front of his face and holding his left fist at the side of his body, below his ribs. Though everything felt solid, he wasn't quite sure. He hadn't actually needed to use any kind of stance in several years and his faded memories were the only reference he had to fall back on.

Soifon made no comments about his positioning, and simply kicked off the ground in a high forward hop. Her arms and braids flew loosely behind her, while the sleeves of her robes billowed rapidly. The first blow, a sharp, inward moving kick, came without warning, but her left shin impacted solidly against Ichigo's right forearm, which he'd moved upwards and outwards in order to serve as a quick, last minute block.

Though she didn't let it show, Soifon was slightly impressed by Ichigo's reaction time. She had throttled the speed and strength of her attack only slightly, just to get a measure of Ichigo's abilities, but his reaction to her kick might have been enough to catch a full-power blow.

_That assumes, of course, that he was anticipating my blow and didn't just blindly react whenever he saw it coming,_ she thought to herself, using a burst of Spiritual Pressure to Flash Step upwards, followed by another Step that took her behind Ichigo, just on his left. As he turned around to meet her next attack, she landed and stepped forward into the blow she was throwing out; he was promptly knocked back by the fist she plowed into his stomach, and hunched over as he slid back, barely staying on his feet.

Soifon didn't stop to let him recover, though, and ran forward in pursuit, still keeping her arms loose to disguise her next move. _I definitely saw him try to protect the area I struck, even if just slightly. He had a feeling it was coming even if he couldn't intercept the attack. His instincts are definitely higher than the average recruit's, but he just can't keep up._

The kick she aimed to his right side knocked Ichigo down outright, and he grunted audibly as the wind flew right out of his lungs. Soifon's braids trailed out behind her as she came to a stop, and she looked over a reclining Ichigo for a few seconds before shaking her head. "I see we have a lot to work on. Come, stand up again. And actually hit me this time."

Ichigo grunted in annoyance and wiped a bit of drool from the side of his mouth before getting up again, waiting for Soifon to assault him once more. When she rushed him again, he only saw her fist shooting forward a moment before it struck him between the eyes.

His last thoughts before passing out on the grass were something close to this: "Hey, the stars are back out again. Pretty."

* * *

**Wednesday, June 24, 9:15 AM**

**Karakura High School, Class 1-3**

Despite the long lapse in days between the start of his new training and the present, Ichigo was still in intense amounts of pain on Wednesday, and not just from his full-contact ass-kicking at Soifon's hands. His patrols with Rukia, which she had taken the liberty of mixing with both Spiritual Energy suppression exercises and the exercises that Soifon told him to do, had become extremely tiring, especially with a good chunk of his Spiritual Energy out of his active reach. Luckily, he was caught up enough on his schoolwork to not need worry so much about trying to balance Reaper life with student life, and silently thanked Rukia for letting him have last week Thursday and Friday off.

On top of that, tonight they were supposed to try doing Jinzen again before heading off on patrol. Ichigo hadn't been able to practice it on his own, given that he hadn't been anywhere near energetic enough after patrols, but he had a feeling that he would be able to get it right the next time he tried it, and couldn't wait to start.

His impatience was also bolstered by the fact that Keigo and Mizuiro were now taking extra time this morning to troll him with the one thing he couldn't stand to hear—the catchphrase-laughter of a certain television celebrity that was beloved by most of the people he knew, Yuzu and Isshin included.

"BO-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAAAAA!"

"Will you guys shut up!" Ichigo snapped, slamming down his copy of _The Taming of the Shrew_ to glare at them both. "Damn it, you're giving me a headache and I'm trying to relax here!"

"Ichigo, don't be a grouch," Keigo said, his arms crossed over his chest and his hands curled over his shoulders. "_Ghost Bust _is awesome and you should totally watch it. It's coming on tonight at eight—and it'll be a special episode, Don Kanonji said so."

Ichigo snorted and rolled his eyes. "Screw that. Are you so dense that you forgot about exams coming up? It's not like Ms. Ochi doesn't remind us every day about what'll be on it and what won't. I'll be busy studying instead of watching that crap. I'm thinking I'm not going to do that well for some reason."

"You're pretty dull sometimes, Ichigo," said Mizuiro, sighing. "After what happened earlier this year I'm honestly surprised to say that the Ichigo I knew then is the same one I know now."

"Look, Ooshima was the one that started with me back then, and that's all there is to it," Ichigo said, re-opening _The Shrew_ and flipping back to the page he'd left off on. "Left to my own devices the only things I'm interested in are not failing miserably in school and living a nice, quiet life."

_As quiet as it gets being a Reaper, at any rate, _he thought to himself with a mental sigh. _At least Rukia finally stopped stalking me everywhere now that Soul Society's gotten serious about this next level of training thing._

He hadn't asked his little partner _why_ this was the case, exactly, but Ichigo figured it had everything to do with the fact that she had to keep her own skills sharp in order to properly monitor the exercises that the other Reapers would be teaching him. And she couldn't well do that while watching him and his friends goof around in school all day, so she had to be using what was once her 'Ichigo-watching time' to train, instead.

Tatsuki's raucous yelling drew him out of his book again, and when he looked up he had just enough time to duck casually under a flying Chizuru, who landed in an unconscious heap on the ground next to his desk, a knot on her forehead.

"You're getting sloppy, Tatsuki," Ichigo said, pretending to read his book again. "Lost an inch or two of clearance on your throws, it looks like. Raise your elbow up a little higher or something next time."

"Shut it, Kurosaki!" was Tatsuki's false-angry reply, complete with a shaking fist, and Ichigo allowed himself a quiet chuckle and a shake of the head as he turned to the next page while Orihime began to fuss at Tatsuki for throwing Chizuru both so hard and so far away.

A pair of cool gray eyes, rimmed by thin, square-frame glasses, focused on Ichigo for a short while, but their owner said nothing, simply observing.

* * *

**8:25 PM**

**Karakura Town, Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

Ichigo groaned in frustration as he sat at the kitchen table, thumbing idly through the back section of Jump and the horoscope section. Rukia hadn't shown up when she customarily did—when he got out of school or at around 5 or 6 PM—and any attempts to contact her had fallen flat. After eating dinner and going upstairs to do schoolwork (and call her again, to no avail) he'd gone downstairs to just relax for a bit, only to forget that Ghost Bust was still on, if wrapping up, by the time he did get there. Yuzu and Isshin were, as usual, glued to the television, while Karin was sitting at the table, opposite him, seemingly staring out into space while she drank some juice. (When he'd asked why she wasn't watching Ghost Bust with her sister and father, she'd replied, "Ichi, I'm about as sensitive as you are to ghosts. Yuzu only watches that show with the old man because she wants to be able to see ghosts, the same way he wants to. It'd be kind of pointless for me to join in then, don't you think?")

Ichigo sucked a tooth and rolled his eyes as he read his horoscope for the week, more out of slight curiosity than any real belief in the astrology. Apparently Cancers were going to have a horrible week that had the potential to "spiral into despair", but despite the fact that he'd lost his wallet, broken his shoelaces twice, and tripped repeatedly, Ichigo doubted that any grand scheming of the cosmos was responsible for all of that—it must've been his lingering soreness and aches from all the work he'd been doing with Rukia all the nights this week, so far, that were making him both unusually clumsy and inattentive.

As he rubbed at one of the three bandages now on his face, his left eardrum was violently invaded by Yuzu's excited squeal, and he felt himself all but topple out of his chair.

"Gah! The hell was that all about, Yuzu?" Ichigo asked, raising his voice so that Yuzu could hear him in the other room. "What's going on?"

"Don Kanonji is coming to Karakura next week Wednesday for his show!" Yuzu cried. "Daddy, we have to go! We absolutely have to!"

Isshin, dressed in leopard-print pants and what looked a lot like a long-sleeved Peter Pan top, complete with starburst collar and cuffs with bells, grinned. "Of course, we'll go, Yuzu! We'll make it a family outing in fact!"

Ichigo closed his eyes and groaned, nearly banging his head against the table in annoyance. He stopped when a buzzing sound came from his pocket, which he recognized as his Soul Phone vibrating there. Calmly, he rose from the table and headed back upstairs, where he couldn't be heard, saying over his shoulder, "I've got a test tomorrow. I'm going upstairs to shower, study a bit more, and sleep. See you guys in the morning."

Karin let out a half-attentive humming sound, while Yuzu and Isshin remained glued to the TV; sighing, Ichigo jogged upstairs, picking up the phone as soon as he was out of earshot.

"About time. The hell have you been?"

_"Captain Ukitake wasn't feeling well, and I had to spend some time assisting with division duties in addition to making sure that he was taking his medicine and following Captain Unohana's medical instructions," _Rukia said tersely, and Ichigo could hear the strain in her voice. _"Kiyone and Sentarou would have done it, but they were busy catching up on a mountain of paperwork that Kiyone happened to misplace when she came in drunk the other day."_

Ichigo arched an eyebrow as he opened his bedroom door. "Again?"

Rukia sighed. _"Again." _She was quiet for only a moment, and then added, _"I'm already in Karakura, in the general vicinity of your house. Switch out with Alfred and come on out. I'll do patrols on my own tonight but we need to do your exercises and Jinzen again. You can't be using a sealed sword and not know any of its abilities."_

"I'll be right there," he said, closing his door and crossing straight over to the drawer where he kept Alfred's pill. "See you in a minute."

* * *

**8:35 PM**

After giving Alfred specific instructions about how to bathe (and reminding him not to lick the soap or anything to that effect), Ichigo stepped into the air, and headed off in the direction of Rukia's cool spiritual energy. He'd found that in his Reaper form, the sealing of most of his own Spiritual Energy (and accordingly, his Spiritual Pressure) made it somewhat easier for him to sense her, and other Reapers, and his overall ability to recognize _what_ those signatures felt like had improved as well, giving him the ability to offhandedly identify a few that he was in constant contact with. Ukitake's was somewhat paternal, and protective, but the frailty of his physical body somewhat carried over to his spiritual energy, though only barely so. Kiyone and Sentarou were regular balls of energy and hot-blooded enthusiasm respectively—warm, but in different ways that couldn't be easily described, and Soifon was…difficult to categorize, to say the least. There was sharpness to what little bits of her energy he'd sensed—a lot like the edge of a sword, but the majority of it defied easy description.

In no time at all, he'd arrived on a rather large apartment rooftop, where Rukia was waiting for him, sitting in the air with legs crossed rather casually.

"All right. Since I already ran you ragged with exercises last night, let's just try Jinzen again," she said, standing up and dropping down to Ichigo's lower altitude. "Last time, you said that you were beginning to feel something like a pulse from Zangetsu, correct?"

"Yeah, whenever Kurotsuchi's stupid face stopped breaking my concentration," Ichigo said, scowling and shaking his head before he drew Zangetsu and sat down on the air as well. He gently laid his bare weapon across his lap and closed his eyes, back straight. "So what am I supposed to do once I get into my inner world?"

"That's up to Zangetsu," Rukia said. "Though do try not to stay in there too long. We have more to do than just this tonight."

Ichigo's scowl deepened momentarily, but didn't open his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I remember. Don't worry about it, I've got it."

Rukia said no more after that, seeing that he was honestly trying to enter the proper state of mind for Jinzen, so she settled down and did the same.

Surprisingly, Ichigo found the place where he had 'left off' with fair speed; it hadn't taken much at all to get back to the point where his body, at least, was perfectly calm. His mind, however, was in no such state, in part because he could feel a number of smaller spiritual energy signatures, mostly from the people around him, in his meditative state. The problem was blocking them out and focusing on his unique presence—that was the only way to get into the inner world.

Without the distraction of Kurotsuchi's face, that part of things turned out to be somewhat easy. Very slowly, each individual light was…snuffed out, as he concentrated on focusing his breathing. Gradually, he began to feel the pulse from Zangetsu that he'd only faintly heard before.

With every light snuffed out, that beat grew stronger, and stronger, faster, and faster, until, at long last, it simply stopped.

* * *

Ichigo opened his eyes and at once realized that he was sitting on the side of the skyscraper once more.

This time, though, without the fugue of dreaming wrapping around his mind and senses, everything was a thousand times clearer, sharper, than ever before. The wind on his face, the blues of the clear, white-clouded sky, and the coolness of the metal structure below his sandaled feet—it was all as real as if he were truly there. And Zangetsu, cloaked in raggedy-edge black as always, stood in front of him, looking down at him calmly, quietly.

"Welcome back, Ichigo. I'm glad to see you again." The sword spirit's voice was still strong and smooth, but it lacked the otherworldliness that Ichigo had come to expect when hearing it, perhaps because they were communicating mutually for once.

Ichigo stood up with a grunt and dusted off his robes, stretching his neck. "Good to see you too, old man. Sorry I couldn't get here sooner, but real life, it's a pain in the ass sometimes."

"It's of little consequence," Zangetsu said. "Now, as to why you're here. I should warn you that any techniques I impart to you have to be earned, Ichigo. If you don't earn them, you can't have them."

Ichigo allowed himself a smirk that gradually formed itself into a grin. "That's fine, old man. So how are we going to do it?"

Zangetsu simply raised his hand and swung it down in a lazy chop, and his own released form appeared in his hand, the cloth wrapping of the hilt flapping in the breeze. Ichigo immediately leapt back, clenching his right fist—and Zangetsu's released form was there as well, its weight soothing and familiar. Confused, he lifted the giant sword aloft, staring at it as if it were some sort of bizarre, otherworldly thing, before looking at Zangetsu with reduced confusion.

"I'm sure you can guess what's coming next," Zangetsu said, his eyes hidden behind his orange visor. "Come at me with full strength, Ichigo. Perform to my satisfaction and the move will be yours."

Ichigo took a breath to steady his nerves, then adjusted his weapon and charged forward. Zangetsu prepared to block, but was pleasantly surprised when Ichigo let Spiritual Pressure flare from his back and feet as he moved. Though it wasn't quite enough for a true Flash Step, the intent was clear, and it worked just enough that Ichigo did shift positions and appear behind Zangetsu. With a yell, the boy swung his weapon down, and Zangetsu quickly evaded to the side, allowing Ichigo to strike and break the skyscraper that they stood on.

As soon as Ichigo came out of his landing crouch, Zangetsu pounced, bearing down on Ichigo with two-handed strikes powerful enough to make the boy's hands shake every time they were blocked. Ichigo instinctively knew that he was being pushed into a worse and worse position with every hit, and finally responded by pushing Zangetsu back by pushing his blade. When the spirit moved, Ichigo concentrated power into his blade, as he always did, and swung hard, intending to strike Zangetsu.

To Ichigo's surprise, the spirit smiled and sidestepped the blow again, then raised his own sword high into the air. "You've already begun to grasp it," Zangetsu said. "Giving the blade your energy, that's part of the technique. The next step is to understand how to unleash it."

A blue light gathered at the tip of Zangetsu's blade, and Ichigo immediately sidestepped when the spirit slashed downward…and sent a white crescent wave of energy, edged with blue, rippling along the skyscraper. Awed, Ichigo watched it travel and travel until it tapered off near the top of the building, and then turned back to his zanpakutou's spirit.

"Old man," the teenager asked, very slowly, "what the hell was that?"

"That's the technique I will give to you if you can prove worthy of it." The spirit gave a small, but undeniably proud smile. "And when you learn it, I will give you its name, and that will make it all the stronger. To know a technique, to master it fully, one must begin with the name."

Ichigo's grin grew just a bit wider, and he hefted his sword, loading it with energy again. Here in his mindscape, he was able to more easily circumvent the restrictions on his power, though if he wasn't careful he'd wear himself out. As he stood there, watching Zangetsu, he recalled how the power of the attack had been all gathered up at the tip of the blade, and wondered if he could replicate the feat if he'd had enough time. Before he could even consider trying, though, Zangetsu was bearing down on him mercilessly, and Ichigo was back on the defensive once more. Despite that, Ichigo kept the energy in his blade as best he could, and tried to imagine focusing it into the tip of his weapon, even as he let himself be pushed back by one of Zangetsu's strikes—so that he could sidestep and unleash a swing of his own. A blue light sparked right at the tip of the sword, and Ichigo almost whooped in joy when Zangetsu barely evaded the blue-and-white shockwave that came out of Ichigo's sword when it was swung.

"Gave that one away for free, old man," Ichigo said with a confident smirk, watching the attack tear a rut in the skyscraper before focusing on the spirit once more. "Even without the name, I learned it from you pretty quick."

"For all you know I may have done that intentionally, Ichigo," Zangetsu replied calmly, shaggy hair blowing in the wind. "Still, I am not satisfied."

He rushed forward again, but this time, Ichigo, feeling emboldened, rushed as well, and struck out before Zangetsu could. Behind his orange visor, the spirit's eyes narrowed slightly as he blocked Ichigo's attacks, and the continued assault gradually forced both combatants towards the top of the skyscraper.

Finally, Ichigo decided that enough was enough, and charged up his sword again as he prepared a final overhead swing. Zangetsu immediately broke off, moving backwards a significant distance and raising his own blade.

Ichigo's eyes seemed to be awash in light blue energy as he pushed extra energy into the tip of his sword. "Not this time, old man! Take this!"

Zangetsu simply shook his head as the attack flew forward, ripping apart the skyscraper; it was notably bigger than Ichigo's first attempt, and much more dangerous.

"You've forgotten what I told you already," the spirit said, sounding slightly annoyed at most. "Allow me to show you, then."

Zangetsu then swung his blade down, but as he did so, he spoke two words, smoothly and calmly.

"Getsuga Tenshou."

The shockwave from Zangetsu's sword was not only bigger than Ichigo's by a fair margin, but noticeably faster, and the two attacks met head on and dissipated without much fanfare—aside, of course, from a bone-rattling boom that knocked Ichigo off his feet. While the Reaper lay on his back, groaning in pain and confusion, Zangetsu simply walked over to him and loomed above him, his all-black ensemble of clothing only adding to his intimidation factor.

"To know a technique, to master it fully, one must begin with the name. That is what you didn't understand, Ichigo. Simply performing the move is not enough. You must call its name—the name is what gives the zanpakutou the strength to unleash all of the technique's power. It's like swinging a blade with one hand instead of two—it may be faster but there's no strength behind the blow."

Silently, Ichigo thought back to when he'd seen Rukia use her 'dances', and understood what Zangetsu was getting at. "Right. So that's the Getsuga Tenshou." He got up slowly, slamming his sword into the skyscraper to provide an extra leg for him until he was up on his feet. "So how else can I use it?"

Zangetsu merely smiled, and turned towards the top of the skyscraper. "Let me show you. It's faster than telling you."

* * *

**9:30 PM**

When Ichigo 'woke' from Jinzen, he was surprised to find that he was sore not from inactivity but from what he had been doing with Zangetsu in the Inner World. Rukia was already out of her Jinzen and simply sat watching him, Sode no Shirayuki was sheathed and laying in front of her.

"You seem pretty cheerful. Did it go well in there?" she asked.

Ichigo rolled a stiffened shoulder and grunted a curse at the twinge of pain, then nodded. "Yeah. I finally learned my first attack from Zangetsu. It's a doozy, and I figure that if I fire one off out here I'll be halfway through whatever energy I can use with this damn armband on. I'll show you some other time."

"Then we'll move on to your sprinting exercises while we patrol," Rukia said, standing up and grabbing Sode no Shirayuki. As she put the zanpakutou back into its rightful place at her waist, she added, "You should know from right now, Ichigo—that session of Jinzen was only the first of many you'll be likely to have over the course of your career as a Reaper. It's not a difficult technique to initiate at its most basic level, but your zanpakutou will not give you all the answers you want right away. Strong Soul Reapers can take many, many years before Jinzen can truly be called 'complete'—hundreds, or maybe even thousands if the Reaper is strong enough to live that long."

"Zangetsu said something like that," Ichigo replied, standing as well. He looked up to the moon with his sealed sword in hand, and then sheathed it rather absently without breaking his gaze. "He said that we'll be able to communicate more directly without Jinzen, too, but that he wasn't going to teach me how to do anything new with the Getsuga Tenshou for a while yet."

"Getsuga Tenshou. Is that your new ability?"

Ichigo smiled and looked at his partner. "Yep—and trust me. It definitely lives up to its name."

Rukia returned the smile. "We'll see, then. For now, let's worry about those sprints and our patrol. On my count, you're to start roof-hopping while doing that gathering and releasing exercise."

Ichigo rolled his eyes, but nodded anyway and turned towards the nearest roof, consciously altering his breathing to help his concentration.

"Ready? One! Two! Three!"

On 'three', Ichigo consolidated his Spiritual Energy into pressure, leapt forward to the next roof, and let it taper away slowly; Rukia followed behind, counting to three once he had landed on the next rooftop, at which point he bounded away again.

This continued on for some time, with only the moon hanging overhead as their shared companion.

* * *

**Saturday, June 27, 4:30 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Eighth Division Barracks**

With the general nightmare of Soifon's weekday training regiment behind him, Ichigo, now at the end of his rope physically speaking, was fairly certain that whatever Kidou exercises Lieutenant Ise had ready for him would be cake in comparison when he left for Soul Society after classes on Saturday afternoon.

Luckily for his emotional stability, he was correct.

When he had first arrived at the Eighth Division's barracks with Captain Kyouraku as his guide, Lieutenant Ise had taken him inside, to a large, private room that resembled a dojo with its shiny wooden floor and pristine walls. A number of wooden training dummies, complete with articulated arms and legs, were set up at the far end, opposite the entrance, and Ise made Ichigo stand halfway between said dummies and the door.

"At this point it's fairly obvious to assume that you know how to control your Spiritual Energy, and Spiritual Pressure, in the most basic way," Ise said, adjusting her glasses. "That being the case we'll go straight to the actual matter of using Kidou. There are three types of Kidou to utilize—Hadou, the destructive arts, Bakudou, the sealing arts, and the healing arts. Hadou and Bakudou rely on incantations to fuel and maintain their effectiveness—without the incantation, the spell is much weaker and may be either completely useless or more harmful to the caster than the target. That's not something we have to worry about today, though—we'll be practicing Bakudou number 1, Restrain, which requires no incantation to execute." She pointed her left index and pointer fingers at one of the dummies, and Ichigo briefly felt her Spiritual Energy convert over to Pressure before she spoke the name of the spell.

"Restrain!"

At that point, something _moved_ from her fingertips, but Ichigo wasn't sure if he'd actually sensed something or just imagined it to be so. The dummy she pointed at rattled around violently as its arms bound themselves behind its back, and Kyouraku, sitting behind them, clapped softly with a smile playing on his lips.

"That's my Nanao-chan. Flawless as always."

"Thank you, Captain," Ise replied, rolling her eyes coolly; that gesture alone told Ichigo that this was a recurring thing between them. "Anyway, I did slow down the process so that you could get an idea of how it worked by sensing what I was doing. Did you catch it or would you prefer that I explain?"

Ichigo scratched his head, frowning as he recalled every step of her technique that he could remember. "You focused Spiritual Pressure into your hand…and then did something, I'm not sure what."

"I pushed the Pressure out of my fingers, with a mental picture of the spell's effect in place while I did. Without using the mental picture, all that happens is that the concentrated hunk of Spiritual Pressure hits the dummy without any effect, like so." She repeated the action for the binding spell, but much more rapidly, practically flicking her fingers at the dummy next to the one that was bound by Restrain, and nothing happened aside from the dummy's limbs swaying slightly. "That's what makes Kidou so difficult to manage—you need significant concentration to maintain the mental image, which creates the effect of the spell, and provide the correct amount of energy to the attack, which is what gives the spell a presence."

Kyouraku nodded sagely. "There are tricks to make it more useful, but don't be surprised if you don't take to Kidou well," he said, sipping a cup of sake from a bottle he'd seemingly produced from nowhere. "Most Reapers are passable at it, my lovely Nanao-chan and quite a few others notwithstanding, and that's usually enough to get by. Unless you're aiming to move up in the ranks, in which case you'll need to be at least as good as her to be considered for lieutenant."

Ichigo scratched his head. "All due respect, sir, but I'm still alive. When am I going to have time to climb up the ladder anytime soon?"

"You won't, of course. I'm just letting you know, in case you get a little ambitious after you become one of the dearly departed."

"Pay him no mind, Kurosaki-san," Ise said, rubbing her temple. "He's simply making conversation—and failing at it. Why don't you try to cast Restrain on one of the dummies now?"

Ichigo shrugged, and then pointed his index finger alone at the indicated dummy.

"Use both fingers, Kurosaki-san. Your control will be assured that way. One-fingered casting isn't for novices."

Nodding, Ichigo extended his middle finger as well, and concentrated his energy into his fingertips before converting it into pressure.

"Good. Don't forget the mental image, as well. It doesn't have to be complex; something as simple as remembering that the arms have to be bound behind the back works perfectly fine."

Ichigo nodded again, and automatically he remembered the burning sensation of his arms being pressed behind his back thanks to Rukia's spell. Without even thinking about it, he pushed the mass of Spiritual Pressure forward, yelling, "Restrain!"

The dummy he pointed it at did indeed have its arms bound up, but so violently that the wood could be clearly heard cracking. Kyouraku let out a low whistle before taking another sip from his cup of sake, and Ise put a hand on her chin, rubbing it thoughtfully.

"It seems you've concentrated a bit too much Pressure into the spell," she said, continuing to eye the dummy thoughtfully. "Remember that the effect is stronger if you concentrate more of it in addition to calling the spell's name. You should also get used to calling out the type of spell and the number so that you can use less Spiritual Pressure to get the same effect. For reference, Restrain is Bakudou number 1."

"So I say 'Bakudou number 1, Restrain' instead of just 'Restrain?'"

Ise smiled slightly and nodded. "That's correct."

Ichigo pointed at one of the unbound dummies on the left and concentrated just like before, though he consciously tried to limit how much Pressure he was generating. Once he felt the familiar power in his fingers, he said, "Bakudou number 1, Restrain!" and the spell fired without a hitch, locking up the dummy's arms much less roughly.

Ise nodded her approval again. "Just about perfect. Now, keep in mind that even with the name and number included, a weak Kidou spell is fairly easy to break or deflect for stronger opponents. However, they are much faster to cast and utilize, which means that given proper application and timing, even low-number spells can be used to critically wound or incapacitate your opponents." She then turned to the dummy that she had bound and flicked her hand at it again, canceling the technique. "Now I'll show you Hadou number 1, Thrust, and you'll alternate between practicing it on the dummies for the rest of the day. Tomorrow, we'll practice breaking out of Bakudou, and on your own time, I want you to have Kuchiki-san use these techniques on you so that you can practice evading or breaking them as necessary."

Ichigo nodded firmly. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Then let's move on to casting Thrust. It's pretty simple, actually. Concentrate the power the same as you would for Restrain, but change the mental image to that of a punch or some other striking force."

Ichigo took a short breath and concentrated his Spiritual Pressure again as she spoke, and by the time she was finished, he was ready. First, though, he stood and watched Ise flick her fingers, firing the spell at the dummy she'd bound up; it rocked in place but stayed otherwise stationary. Satisfied, she turned to Ichigo and gestured at his dummy; he turned towards it with his brows drawn tightly and thrust his hand out.

"Hadou number 1: Thrust!"

The dummy he targeted shook violently…and then flew backwards, snapping the post it was attached to and breaking through the wall behind it with ease.

Ise's eyes didn't widen very much, but it was all too easy to see that she was just a little bit stunned. Kyouraku merely chuckled aloud and shook his head, smiling.

"We've got quite the powerhouse here, hm, Nanao-chan?"

Ise blinked, and then stared at her captain, eyes narrowing. "You will be doing the paperwork for the wall repairs yourself, Captain. Tonight."

Kyouraku's face fell like a rock. "Nanao-chan, you can't be so cruel to me," he said, beginning to sniffle pitifully. "Please, don't do it, Nanao-chan!"

"No negotiations, Captain Kyouraku. And you'll be doing yesterday's paperwork as well, I was too busy preparing and presenting the training schedule to finish all of it."

"Nanao-chan…." Now Kyouraku's voice was wheedling, barely above sobs. Even Ichigo could tell, though, that the man was just being dramatic for the sake of it. Ise's response was to take a book out of her sleeve and casually toss it into her captain's face, muffling the rest of his entreaties.

"Don't worry about the wall and the dummy. We'll take care of it. But do remember, Kurosaki-san, you have to pay attention to how much Spiritual Pressure you accumulate for the attack. Please?"

Ichigo rubbed the back of his head and looked downward, grimacing. "Right. Sorry."

Ise, despite herself, smiled slightly. _He's easily embarrassed, but he's definitely got the potential to go far. He just has to refine his technique. _"Why don't we try again? Simply restrain yourself a bit more and you should be fine."

"Yeah."

* * *

**Wednesday, June 31, 7:30 PM**

**Karakura Town, Matsukura Hospital**

Once more, the days passed by in a veritable blur for Ichigo. As always, schoolwork was the main focus of the day, while at night, he hit the city with Rukia to patrol. However, with the use of Kidou, or rather, being forced to strike preliminary attacks against the odd Hollow or two with Thrust and Restrain, Ichigo found that Kidou was very slowly coming under his mastery, and that made all of the work worthwhile.

Wednesday, however, saw a temporary end to that progress, if only because Ichigo couldn't quite leave Alfred in extended contact with his family when they went to go see Don Kanonji's stupid Ghost Bust program. Despite all of Rukia's protests the day of the event, Ichigo told her without hesitation, "Just go on without me. I'll take all of my Reaper crap with me when I go, so you can call me if you need me. It'd be best, though, if I'm with them tonight. Please."

At length, Rukia had acceded to his demands, and let him go.

Now, surrounded by his friends with their arms crossed over their chests in the standard "Don Kanonji" pose (even Chad, of all people!) and laughing their heads off (thankfully, Chad wasn't doing that), Ichigo was sorely tempted to pop Alfred into his mouth and run off to find Rukia.

After a particularly loud "BO-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAAAAAA!" Keigo turned to Ichigo and asked, "Hey, come on now, Ichigo! Show some pride in our town, why don't you?"

Ichigo turned up his scowl to maximum and buried himself deeper in his Jump magazine, intent on ignoring his hyperactive, silly friend. Karin, standing nearby, continued to look away, while Yuzu and Isshin were laughing their collective asses off Kanonji-style. "The hell are you going about anyway, Keigo? You live in Naruki, dumbass. On my worst days I'm more a member of this town than you are."

"That's just not fair, Ichigo!" Keigo whined. "Why do you always have to be such a dick, man?"

"Because you're an idiot," Ichigo said calmly. "Now cut out that obnoxious laughter of yours or else. I'm not here because I want to be and that laughter's just pissing me off."

Keigo pouted and "Fine, be that way. At least I still have Mizuiro to hang around with. Right, buddy?"

Mizuiro nodded idly and cast a sidelong gaze at a few older women walking nearby, right as Keigo launched into another vigorous laugh. The ladies' attention was caught by the gesture, and they came over to the three boys with a smile.

"Hey there, boys. How're you doing?"

Ichigo grunted and walked off with his family, nose still buried in his magazine, while Mizuiro smiled slyly.

"Which one of you two let off that nice laugh?"

Mizuiro blushed and looked away, poking the tips of his index fingers together. "Not me…!"

The women immediately crowded around Mizuiro immediately, smiling and cooing. "Aw, so cute…."

As the Kurosaki family went along to get closer to the hospital, Ichigo split off from them, and he ran into Tatsuki and Orihime. The strawberry-blonde girl seemed more nervous than usual, but Ichigo couldn't quite place why.

"Um…Kurosaki-kun," Orihime said, poking her fingers together. "Tatsuki-chan told me that you don't like this kind of show. I shouldn't have made such a big deal earlier today when we were all talking about it. I'm sorry."

"It's only when people go around rubbing it in my face like the stupid twins that I get annoyed," Ichigo said, nodding towards Keigo and Mizuiro. "Don't worry about it, Inoue. Besides that, someone's gotta keep these guys company." He jerked his thumb in the direction of his family.

Orihime put a finger on her lips, then smiled and nodded. "Oh, I see. You're here because of them. That's only fair."

A sudden chill came over Ichigo as he prepared to come up with a response, and he looked up towards the hospital. Orihime followed his gaze, and again, before either of them could speak, a low, moaning roar came from the very depths of the hospital, shaking both of them to their bones.

Then there came a rush of Spiritual Pressure that made Ichigo tense up immediately.

_…this feeling. It's like a Hollow. Almost. But there's something…something's not right. It feels…like a Plus spirit, too. A mix of a Hollow and a Plus—how's that even possible?_

Tatsuki's eyebrows scrunched up in annoyance, and she looked around with a frown on her face. "What the hell was that… odd moaning sound?"

Ichigo paled slightly, and tried to bury his nose deeper into the magazine, only to pale even more when Orihime asked, "So you heard it too, Tatsuki-chan?"

"Great, they both heard it," Ichigo muttered. "This can't be good at all. So then…what is it, if it's not a Hollow or a Plus?"

"It's an earthbound spirit, Ichigo," said a voice from above, and Ichigo looked up to see Rukia standing in the air above him and walking down to his side. "It can't be detected on our Soul Phones. We can only see it or recognize it when we intrude on its territory."

Not for the first time, Ichigo wondered just how the HELL Rukia knew when to show up and how to do it without overtly attracting his attention. She was now casting an eye over both the hospital and the camera crews running around and setting things up; Orihime and Tatsuki hadn't noticed her, even though they had heard the earthbound spirit. "Your friends just heard the spirit howl, too, I see."

"Yeah. I don't know how, but if Captain Clownface's lecture is anything to go by, it's probably my fault." He frowned. "I'll get Alfred ready, and—"

"No need for that, Ichigo. I'll do it myself. It won't be any trouble, but it's best to do it before the situation escalates." And with that, Rukia disappeared in a Flash Step, in the direction of the hospital.

Sighing, Ichigo flipped to the back of the magazine and checked the Cancer prediction.

_This week is ripe with opportunities. You will make new friends, and a new world may open to you!_

Ichigo sighed and shook his head. "What a load of bullshit. Just like always."

Orihime had been looking around at everyone else. "Sorry, Kurosaki-kun. Did you say something?"

Ichigo sighed and shook his head. "Nah. Just talking to myself. Don't mind me."

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_This one is extra-long to compensate for last month, since I'm a screwball and didn't finish up on time last month. Also, it seems that this is a two-part chapter this time. Mostly because I threw all of the training stuff in here. That doesn't mean I'm off track, mind, it just means that more work got put into this chapter than I expected to, so I have to split it accordingly._

_In terms of popularity…well, I'm quite pleased with the way things are turning out. So far, Substitute School, as of this tenth chapter, has 48 reviews, over 12,000 hits, 87 favorites and 97 story alerts. If I could offer something special for any special numbers, I would, but sadly I can't…if only because I wouldn't know what to give as a bonus for special numbers._

_Next chapter should be fun. For certain reasons, anyway. You'll see._

_Anyway. Since I've got two more chapters to write, I oughta bust my butt on those two. So, if you'll pardon me…I'll be getting to that. While watching lots of G Gundam._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_Got nothing for you this time out._

_That's all for now, OK? I'll catch you guys around next class!_

_~ZS_


	11. Lesson 11: Human Exorcism 101, Pt 2

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 11: Human Exorcism 101 pt. 2, or the Don and the Dame_

* * *

**Wednesday, June 31, 7:55 PM**

**Karakura Town, Matsukura Hospital**

After a set of well-timed flash steps, Rukia found herself on the roof of the burned-out hospital where the legendary spiritualist Don Kanonji was preparing to run an extra-special episode of Ghost Bust. Though her vantage point afforded her a clear view of the surrounding area, including the cameras that were being setup to start filming in only a few moments, Rukia's sole concern was the earthbound spirit that was chained to the hospital; currently, said spirit, despite being invisible still, was making a particularly loud and obnoxious wailing noise that was cutting the very air.

The wailing had started when she left behind Ichigo fifteen or so minutes, and now her nerves were already worn to the fraying point. She hadn't had a very busy night, in the more troublesome sense of "busy"; there had been no Hollows to purify, only Soul Burials, but tracking down those souls had been especially vexing since she'd had to cross town a few times to get all of them. Had she not passed over the hospital while making a general pass over the area, she wouldn't have sensed the earthbound spirit there at all.

"Why hasn't it appeared, yet? What is it waiting for?" Rukia muttered, closing her eyes to try and block out the chatter from below and the spirit's moans. "If it would just shut up, or something, then maybe I could pinpoint it…!"

With an annoyed grunt, she pressed her eyelids closed even tighter, attempting to screen out the noise outright. It was to no avail, though; the buzz and bustle of the crowd practically floated up to assault her ears in addition to the spirit, much to her severe frustration.

"Blast it…I can't take much more of this. Either that spirit shows up within the next minute or I just leave the blasted thing until after this festival is over."

Of course, coincidences being what they were, something began to emerge from the ground near the entrance of the hospital, while Rukia was busy trying to talk herself into leaving. Scowling, she Flash Stepped down to the disturbance, and saw a man-shaped ghost slowly rise out of the ground, with chains slowly sliding down the hospital's outer walls and attaching themselves to the spirit's body.

Rukia grimaced as the man-spirit let out another howl, though it sounded more incensed than anything else; when it stopped, she was able to get a good look at him. Dressed in nothing but a long-sleeved white shirt, the spirit had thick, dark eyebrows and small, greedy eyes, as well as light-brown hair; his body from the waist down was still embedded in the ground. Most notably, of all the Chains of Fate that wrapped around his body, one was attached to his chest, where part of a hole could be seen pulled open by the attached chain.

"What the hell are all you bastards doing here? Pay up if you wanna stay!" he yelled. "You won't take this place from me, it was supposed to be mine, mine, you hear? My old man was a fool, giving it over to my younger brother! Dammit, dammit, damn it!"

"Oh, do shut _up_," Rukia grumbled, stalking over to where the spirit was stuck in the ground. "At least earthbound spirits don't turn into Hollows straight away, or it would just be troublesome."

Unbeknownst to Rukia, a shadow was casting itself on the ground beneath her feet, but she didn't notice that something—or someone—was descending from the sky until she heard both a cavalcade of shrieks and a man's deep voice cry, "SPIRITS ARE ALWAYS WITH YOU!" Alarmed by the noise, she looked up to see a pair of fancy, sharp-heeled boots a good foot or two away from her head, and moved out of the way with a quick back-hop as Don Kanonji landed right where she'd been standing.

To say that the tall, thin man looked strange to Rukia would've been a gross understatement. He wore a fur-lined hat with the letters "SP" written on it; it looked very much like a papal hat. He also had a matching black coat that left his chest exposed. Black braids streamed out from under his hat, and his eyes were obscured by a round-lensed pair of sunglasses. A thin, handlebar mustache graced his upper lip, and he wore a necklace with the kanji for "spirit" around his neck, and carried an odd winged staff with a pointed top.

As he pulled off the harness for the parachute he wore, Kanonji looked Rukia straight in the face and frowned, but before he could say a word to her, the MC for the event, a short, graying, chubby man in a suit, came up to him, saying, "Mr. Kanonji, that was quite the entrance."

"Well, of course," Kanonji replied, briefly turning away from Rukia. "Helicopter's the fastest way to travel, and I can tell you right now that with the vibe I'm getting from this place, parachuting down was a lot faster than waiting for it to land. But I digress." He turned back towards Rukia, only to see that she was walking towards the earthbound spirit with Sode no Shirayuki in hand, ready to perform a Soul Burial. Of course, the sword was sheathed, but Kanonji wasn't paying attention to that little factoid. Quickly, he matched Rukia's stride and followed her towards the raving earthbound spirit; both the cameras and the MC followed him, and he kept his eyes forward to maintain the impression that he knew what he was doing.

"Now just a second, there, little lady," he said in a whisper. "Seeing that no one else here has noticed you, I'd have to say you're a ghost. Not the one I'm looking for, I think, but a ghost nevertheless. Listen here, now. Step back, put that sword of yours away, and let me take care of that chained-down fellow. Then I'll send you along to heaven, too, just like him."

"You should stay out of matters that do not concern you," Rukia replied, putting on her 'ice princess' face and style of speaking. "I do not know what you intend to do with that spirit, but whatever it is will not send it to 'heaven' as you claim."

Kanonji was so affronted by her tone that he stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her retreating back; confused, the MC asked, "Mr. Kanonji? Is something the matter? Do you sense something?"

Kanonji smoothly adjusted his glasses and brushed a piece of imaginary lint off of his puffed-up shoulder pads. "Y-Yes, definitely. Without a doubt, this place smells…."

"LIKE BAD SPIRITS," the crowd replied with a roar.

* * *

Having rejoined his family, both Ichigo and Karin looked especially sick when that cheer ran through the crowd, though Karin at least couldn't see any of the goings-on because of the tall man standing in front of her. Ichigo, of course, could see just fine, and felt Rukia's Spiritual Pressure gathering up for Soul Burial even where he stood.

_Hurry up before that idiot does something rash, Rukia,_ Ichigo thought, scowling darkly. _He can obviously see you, and if he thinks that you're the spirit he came here for, there's going to be trouble._

While Ichigo was busy pondering that, the distinctive click-clack of wooden geta sandals drew up behind him, and a man's voice, light and a little bit drawling, broke into his thoughts.

"Pardon me, young man. You wouldn't mind if my friends and I stood here, would you?"

Ichigo turned to face the speaker, and was surprised slightly; the man speaking to him was slim, but his natural height, compounded by his sandals, was more than enough to put him a bit above Ichigo. The newcomer's eyes were shadowed by his white-striped green bucket hat, and he wore a black jacket with white diamonds on the bottom half over his green shirt and pants.

"Yeah, do whatever you like," Ichigo said. "I don't mind."

The man smiled and touched the brim of his hat. "Thanks. Pardon, I should introduce myself, first, before I go calling over everyone else. I'm Kisuke Urahara. I own a store over in Mitsumiya, the Urahara Shop."

Ichigo nodded. "I'm Ichigo Kurosaki."

Urahara arched an eyebrow when he heard Ichigo's name, but didn't get the chance to say anything else. A shout rippled through the crowd, though they couldn't see anyone aside from Don Kanonji; the so-called spiritualist was now visibly blocking Rukia from getting to the earthbound spirit, and Ichigo's attention was drawn back to the front of the hospital as a result. Smiling, the shop owner looked back at the crowd and silently waved over a tall, tanned man with black, braided cornrows and square-frame glasses before turning back around and watching the scene unfold.

_You're looking well, miss, much better than when I found you at Isshin's place,_ Urahara thought._Now let's see how you'll deal with this, hmm?_

"Kanonji-san," Rukia said, her violet eyes narrowing as she gripped Sode no Shirayuki in her left hand, "you have approximately three seconds to get out of my way before I_make_ you get out of my way."

"I can't allow that," Kanonji said, brandishing his staff. "Missy, I'm asking you to leave this to me for a reason. I'm a premier spiritualist, the best of this new century. I'll be able to handle it. If you don't, I'm afraid I'll have to send you to your final resting place as well."

"Don Kanonji has pulled out the Super Spirit Stick, folks!" the MC said, his eyes widening. "I can't believe it. Is the situation so serious that he'll need to get into actual combat with a spirit?"

Rukia blinked a few times, and then sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. "My word. You are serious. Honestly, why is it that this always has to happen to me?" She effortlessly built up a quick burst of Spiritual Pressure, and thrust her right index finger at Kanonji. "I warned you, so this is your own fault. Restrain."

Instantly, Kanonji's arms locked up behind him, forcing him to drop his staff, and he wobbled about unsteadily before letting out a shocked gasp and falling to the ground. Rukia walked by him without further comment, while the MC quickly rushed over to pull Kanonji up.

"Mr. Kanonji, are you all right? What's happened?"

Kanonji grunted and struggled to his feet once more with the help of the MC, and stared incredulously at Rukia, who was now standing right in front of the earthbound spirit. "The spirit's bound my arms with some sort of…enchantment, I'm not sure. But I'm not the foremost spiritualist for nothing! Just give me a second and I'll bust right out of this!"

"And just what're you staring at, shorty?" the earthbound spirit yelled at Rukia, his eyes bulging out of his head. "Dressed up like that and carrying around a toy sword? The hell's wrong with you? You came for my hospital too? I'll show you—!"

Rather than waste time responding, Rukia slammed the pommel of Sode no Shirayuki into the spirit's forehead, leaving the glowing white mark that would purify him right between his eyes.

"This is not your hospital," she said, her 'icy' demeanor fading slightly. "You have been dead for who knows how long, and now you're going along to your eternal rest. It may feel strange, but I give you my word as a Soul Reaper—it is natural. You will be going to a better place."

The Chains of Fate binding the spirit to the hospital fell off and faded away, leaving only the one that was bound to the spot on the spirit's chest where the hole was forming. The spirit's angry expression began to fade, and he had just enough time to look at Rukia in puzzlement before the Burial was complete, removing him from his place and manifesting a Hell Butterfly there instead.

Behind his glasses, Don Kanonji's eyes widened, and with a loud, pained grunt, he strained against his bonds, veiling himself in crimson light. To Rukia and Ichigo's shock, he finally managed to break free of the spell, immediately picked up his staff, and charged forward.

"A Soul Reaper, you called yourself?" Kanonji yelled. "You turned that man into a butterfly! How could you damn his soul like that?"

The MC blinked in confusion. "I'm sorry, Mr. Kanonji. What was that?"

Kanonji's response to the shorter, pudgier man came as he jabbed the pointy end of his staff at a bewildered and annoyed Rukia, though she dodged the attack easily. "Another spirit has arrived! She calls herself a Soul Reaper, and she just did…something to the other spirit that was here, the one that bound me! Stand back! She might do the same to you!"

Rukia grimaced in annoyance as she turned aside the next blow with a still-sheathed Sode no Shirayuki. "You idiot, what are you doing? Did I not tell you that whatever you were going to do was not going to save that man's soul?"

"And I'm supposed to believe that turning him into a butterfly instead of freeing him, cutting away those chains and prying open that half-open hole on his chest was better for him?" Kanonji replied, spinning the staff about once more to strike Rukia. "You're truly a vengeful spirit, girl. I'm sorry it had to come to this, but I'll just have to exorcise you as well!"

"Wait, that's what were you planning to do to him?" Rukia yelled, a vein pulsing in her forehead; any attempts she was making to stay calm and dignified went out the window. "Goddamn it! It's bad enough that you're a flamboyant showoff, but you're a bona fide idiot on top of that! If you'd done that, then you would've done more harm than good!"

Kanonji shook his head and continued his assault in a vain attempt to subdue Rukia. "I've been a medium long enough to not be fooled by silly tales, girl! Now stop resisting!"

Unfortunately for Kanonji, his antics had long since driven Rukia past her willing tolerance of 'stupidity,' and with an enraged shout, she grabbed the Spirit Stick when it came close to her again, and held it fast. No matter how Kanonji struggled, he couldn't pull free; Rukia put Sode no Shirayuki back into the white sash at her waist, freeing up her left hand, and punched the staff from below while pulling down with her right hand, snapping the staff in two.

The MC and Don Kanonji both reeled back, the former in shock, the latter in horror; the majority of the crowd might not have been able to see Rukia, but they, too, could see the stick break in half seemingly on its own.

* * *

From where he stood with Keigo, Mizuiro, and the nice ladies that Mizuiro had somehow managed to charm, Chad frowned and squinted slightly. He had thought it odd enough when he heard the loud moans earlier, and now he could just barely make out a blurry…something in front of Kanonji while the Super Spirit Stick shattered into millions of little cheap pieces, but couldn't quite tell what it was. His expression deepened, becoming even cloudier. _What's going on here…?_

Unbeknownst to him, Tatsuki and Orihime were also seeing what he was seeing, though with even less clarity, not even able to comprehend Rukia's general body shape; Karin, on the other hand, was seeing quite clearly, now that the man blocking her view was gone, and she was no less confused than the three of them.

_Who is that girl? _The more cynical Kurosaki twin scratched her head in confusion. _It looks like the Don isn't too much of a fake after all, but if she did that to his little magic stick then what could she do to him?_

Ichigo, meanwhile, was doing everything he could to look as disinterested as possible—it would've been suspicious if anyone saw him visibly reacting with confusion or amusement instead of bedazzled shock._ Well, Kanonji is talking to Rukia and could see the spirit, so at the very least he's actually able to see ghosts, but…._ He frowned. _From what he said about opening up those holes, it sounds like he's been doing that to other bound spirits that were turning into Hollows. And if Rukia's response is anything to go by, he's been helping them turn when he did it, too. I mean, he didn't know, so I don't know if you can really call him an idiot because of that. Still, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Who knows how many Hollows he's made because of that? And how can we get him to stop if he won't listen to Rukia?_

Apparently that question wasn't on Rukia's mind, as she casually tossed away the piece of the staff that was still in her hand, pulled both hands back, and thrust both index fingers at Kanonji.

"Bakudou number 1, Restrain! Hadou number 1, Thrust!"

The two Kidou spells struck in tandem, and the next thing Kanonji knew, he had been thrown back violently and was now slumping against the nearest wall of the hospital, with his arms bound behind his back once again. He struggled against the bonds, but the sweat beading on his face was more than enough to indicate how successful he was going to be.

"You won't break that one, I assure you," Rukia said, her icy glare back in place. "Now, listen. I'm telling you that that earthbound spirit would have become a Hollow, a soul-eating monster, if you had done anything to that hole in its chest. If I hadn't stopped you, you would have gotten a lot of innocent people hurt or killed here tonight. Whether you want to believe me or not is up to you, but I will tell you this. If you try to do it again, either you'll get killed, or someone else will and it'll be your fault. Stop trying to do a Soul Reaper's job."

"I don't do this just for me," Kanonji said, his voice weak. "I do this to protect the innocents that can't see the spiritual, that need my help."

Rukia slowly shook her head. "Soul Reapers have been doing this job for longer than you have been alive. I can tell you right now that whatever you think you can do for these spirits won't be any help. Just stay out of it."

Kanonji stared blankly at her for a few moments, and then used the hospital wall as a brace to force himself back onto his feet. Even so, he was sagging, and his breaths were heavy enough for Rukia to tell that breaking her spell had taken a lot out of him. "I won't. Even if what you say is true, 'Soul Reaper' girl, I won't stand by and let the spirits suffer. I, Don Kanonji, will continue to…continue to…be a hero to all the people. Spirits are always…with us…."

And with that, he passed out in a cold heap on the ground, leaving the MC to frantically gesture at the cameramen to cut to commercial as he said, "Don Kanonji! Speak to us! Are you all right? Where's the spirit!"

Shaking her head, Rukia looked towards Ichigo as if she were going to say something, and then paused, growing pale at the sight of Urahara, and Urahara's tall, bespectacled associate, standing beside Ichigo. Her partner noticed the change in her expression and gave Urahara a hard glare out of the corner of his eye; the shopkeeper merely nodded his head directly at Rukia, shocking both Ichigo and Rukia, then said, quietly enough for only Ichigo to hear, "I'm…sensitive too, Ichigo-kun. And that girl and I, we've met before. That's why she's so surprised—I'm guessing she didn't expect to see me here of all places." His smile widened as Rukia quickly turned from them and Flash Stepped away. "I think she'll explain it to you a little later, once she's gotten over her little fright."

Ichigo's brows scrunched together, but he couldn't keep his face neutral anymore after hearing Urahara so calmly assume—correctly—that he knew Rukia and that he was in contact with her somehow. _How does he know? How_**_could_**_he know?_

"Boss," the tan man said to Urahara, ignoring Ichigo's growing confusion and unease, "would you like me to take Jinta, Ururu, and Kaitou back to the shop, or will we be going back together?"

"Actually, Tessai, I'd like to catch up with Isshin," Urahara said lightly, snapping open a fan and waving it in front of his face, ignoring Ichigo's sputter of surprise at how Urahara knew Ichigo's father. "Let's go get them first, by all means, before I go see him. Where are they?"

"They saw a friend from Kai's school—Karin, I think her name was," Tessai said, adjusting his glasses as he surveyed the crowd for the children in question. "Ah, there they are. It looks like they're already with Isshin-san."

"Then we might as well head over there, no? Will you come with us, Ichigo-kun?"

Ichigo had to fight to keep his teeth from grinding against each other; tonight had rapidly become a less-than-pleasant little trip, and he had a feeling it wasn't going to get any simpler either. "I might as well."

* * *

**8:10 PM**

"Kanonji-san!" Yuzu wailed, staring in shock at where Kanonji lay insensate and drooling on the ground. "Oh, my goodness, the spirit actually got him? I can't believe it!"

"It's OK, Yuzu," Isshin said, squeezing his daughter's shoulder gently. "He still stood and fought, and that's what matters, right? He didn't give up. That's what's important."

While those two were engaged in that conversation, Karin, arms folded, was busy dealing with the three children that stayed at Urahara's shop. The only one she knew personally was brown-haired and dark-eyed Kaitou Kondo (though he preferred to be called Kai) who was in her class at school. Much like the other boy and the girl that were with him, Kai wore a white shirt that had the kanji for "Urahara Shop" enclosed within a thin, black rectangle, while sporting his favorite pair of brown cargo shorts.

The other boy of Kai's group, Jinta Hanakari, had short, fire-red hair that was somewhat slicked up and back. Between Karin, Kai, and the other girl with them, he was the shortest one of the group, but his short, thin eyebrows and rather small eyes seemed to promise pain to anyone that annoyed him, in a way entirely at odds with his appearance.

The girl, Ururu Tsumugiya, was the quiet one of the three, and the tallest one there, 4'6" to Karin's 4'4", Jinta's 4'1", and Kai's 4"5'. Unlike the boys, her shirt's logo was pink, and not white, and she was wearing a pink skirt with white polka-dots. Her dark hair was styled into twin pigtails at the side of her head, tied with pink scrunchies. Two long bangs hung down in the middle of her face, with the rest of it framing her face.

"I never knew you watched Ghost Bust anyway, Kai," Karin said, finally getting the conversation off the subject of soccer (Kai, as usual, had launched into that almost immediately after introducing Jinta and Ururu to Karin; though Jinta had seemed pretty interested in hearing the story since he went to another school, she was in no mood to discuss it, since Kai and his group of soccer buddies had been beating her and her friends in their after-school games recently). "The way you normally talk about things like psychics and ghosts, you sound as skeptical as my brother does."

"Nah, it was the old man's idea," Kai said, rolling his eyes. "Family bonding, he calls it. He's just weird like that. What about you?"

Karin's response was to jerk her thumb in Isshin and Yuzu's direction with a flat look on her face, and Kai chuckled, shaking his head. "Right. I should've been able to figure that one out. Sorry."

Urahara's voice came warbling over the air, then, cutting off their conversation. "Isshin-san~ Hey, Isshin-san~"

Isshin perked up and looked around, recognizing the voice. "Urahara, is that you?"

"Yep," the shopkeeper said, smiling broadly as he waved his fan, walking up to Isshin with Tessai and Ichigo in tow. "It's good to see you again, friend." He then waved his fan at Tessai, adding, "This is Tessai Tsukabishi, the senior employee at my shop. He manages the little ones when they're not off learning at school or when I'm otherwise engaged."

Tessai inclined his head. "A pleasure, Kurosaki-san."

"And what's this, you found my son!" Isshin said, grinning broadly. "Where've you been, Ichigo? I began to wonder if you hadn't just snuck off back to home after all this hullabaloo!"

"I'm not walking all the way back there, you old idiot," Ichigo muttered to himself. "Have you gone even nuttier since the last time I talked to you? Which, by the way, wasn't more than half an hour ago?"

Isshin continued to smile, ignoring his son's grumbling. "Oh, Ichigo, you're such a grouch. I keep telling you to relax, son. You're not going to make any friends if you've always got a stick twisted in the wrong spot, you know?"

Ichigo groaned and muttered several vile, annoyed swearwords that Urahara, Isshin, and Tessai all ignored. At length, though, the boy finally asked, "How is it that you two know each other anyway, Dad?"

"Urahara comes in for checkups and the like every now and then, brings the children in for them too," Isshin said. "Usually you, Karin, and Yuzu are out at school when he stops by, so that's why you haven't met him."

"And how long has this been going on for?"

Isshin's smile broadened. "Long enough."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever. When are we going home? I've got homework to do."

"Well, if you really want to, we might as well head back," Isshin said, checking his watch. "Karin, Yuzu! Come on, let's go! Kurosaki family is rolling out!"

Yuzu cast a few more despairing glances at a still unconscious Don Kanonji, and the thinning crowd, before walking over to her father; Karin followed suit, while Kai and his buddies exchanged farewells with her and went to stand with Tessai. Ichigo made to go after his father and sisters, but before he could go, Urahara smoothly drew up to him and pressed something into the palm of Ichigo's hand.

"I'd like you and your Reaper friend to come by my shop and talk to me when you get the chance," Urahara said in a conspirator's whisper; there was an underlying sternness in his voice that seemed to say:_ This isn't a request; this is a demand that I expect you to meet._"I'm sure that you two will both have quite a few questions for me, and I imagine that you two need to come to an understanding about what really happened on the night she saved you, first."

And with that, Urahara stepped back, and waved Ichigo off with a pleasant, dreamy smile. The young Kurosaki simply frowned, but nodded curtly in reply before walking off with his father and the girls.

"You're playing the deceptive card again, huh, boss?" Tessai asked, watching the Kurosaki family depart with his arms crossed. "You should not insinuate things like that. Kurosaki-kun's a pretty solid lad from what I've seen, but I'm pretty sure that you could get him to start distrusting that partner of his if you don't watch your words. If I may say so, anyway."

"He may have reason to trust her, but perhaps he shouldn't," Urahara said. "From what little I said to her that night, I could tell that she's no less preoccupied with her notions of duty and honor than any Soul Reaper."

"That's a little harsh," Kai said, sounding older than he was despite his voice not changing in timber or pitch. "Sounds like you're still a little upset about what happened, old man. They did me wrong too, you know, and I let go of it."

Urahara snapped his fan shut, tucked it into his coat, and put a hand on his hat as he led the way back northeasterly, to where their shop was; his geta clacked lightly against the concrete every step of the way. "It's nothing like that, Kai, not at all. Please, let's not go there—that's just depressing. Come, we need to be heading home ourselves. We've got to make sure Yoruichi didn't wreck the shop chasing after mice or something."

* * *

**8:40 PM**

Once Ichigo and family arrived back at home, around 8:30, he went upstairs, with the excuse of doing work as per usual. Immediately, he popped Alfred into his mouth and cranked up his spiritual senses, reaching out for Rukia's Spiritual Pressure. The moment he found it, he pushed his window open, gave Alfred the usual instructions, and took off to the northeast, towards Kasazaki.

He found Rukia near, of all places, Hirohyaku Supermarket, standing on a corner-side traffic lamppost with a stern frown on her face, looking up at the sky. As he leapt down to the street from a nearby rooftop and came towards her from across the street, Rukia picked up his presence and looked down, still unsmiling.

"You found me on your own when I was so far away from you. I guess we're getting somewhere with you after all," she said, her voice flat and quieter than usual. "Good job, Ichigo."

"What's the matter with you, sounding all depressed?" Ichigo said, cranking up his scowl so that she understood just how he was feeling. "Don't tell me this has something to do with that Urahara guy."

Rukia's brow furrowed slightly, but not in frustration. She cast her eyes to the ground, and pursed her lips together so tightly that they went entirely pale.

Ichigo let out a growling grunt and threw his hands up. "Rukia! He knows we're working together! So he knows about what happened at my house, and I don't know how he would know, but if you know anything, you need to tell me—"

Rukia's shoulders quivered, but she looked at him again, and whispered, "He was there, Ichigo. He was there that night, after you passed out, and he offered me a deal." Her voice was shaky, but she kept talking, looking back up at the night sky. "He said…"

"…_if you want to disappear, I can make it all too easy for you. I can supply you with a Gigai that will make you untraceable. I can remove this boy's powers. Soul Society will never know what happened to you, and you will live."_

"I refused. I told him I couldn't just run away from taking responsibility for my actions, and that my honor as a Soul Reaper—" _and as a Kuchiki_, she thought to herself—"wouldn't allow it." She closed her eyes, and willed back the revulsion that came over her as she continued. "But in truth, for just a moment, I thought about accepting, just so that I could run away."

"To save your life, you mean," Ichigo said, folding his arms. "I can't say I'd blame you for that. You're…_human_, Rukia. Maybe not a living one, but still. That's a natural feeling, right? To want to live, and not die? That's not running away."

Rukia shook her head. "No, Ichigo. When I say 'run away', I mean precisely that. Run away from being a Soul Reaper, from being a Kuchiki, from everything. I truly almost did." Her face tightened, and she stared down into the palm of her hand before clenching it into a fist. "The only reason I didn't is because I realized that it wouldn't change anything."

"So what, you feel guilty about being tempted? That's why you're so agitated?"

"No. After I refused him, he told me that it would be in my best interest to make sure no one, especially the Central 46, knew of our encounter, and said that if I was going to make the decision to martyr myself for my beliefs, he had no business making me do otherwise. And then he left me there."

The dots connected themselves for Ichigo once he heard that. "But he'd only know about the Central 46 if a Reaper told him, which is extremely unlikely if not impossible, or if he'd lived in Soul Society."

Rukia shook her head, finally hopping down from her perch. "I wondered the same thing, and asked him how he knew about the 46. All he had to say was that he had an understanding of how the Reapers operated. I suspect he's a Soul Reaper exile, someone who broke the laws and was sent out of Soul Society to live on his own."

Ichigo threw his arms up in annoyance and began to pace around. "But he's a flesh-and-blood human. Other people actually saw him and reacted to him! How could he have done that if he's a spirit?"

"He would need a Gigai—a false human body that Reapers use for extended reconnaissance that requires human interaction—but how he would have gotten it, I don't know," Rukia said. "Given his knowledge, and the way he seemed so casual about the whole affair, that's the only explanation I had." She sighed. "At any rate, after he was gone, I managed to heal myself before calling the Fourth and Twelfth Divisions to extract me and start coming up with a cover story for the damage to your house. When I went before the 46, I did exactly as he said and made no mention of his presence."

Ichigo stopped roaming around and looked at Rukia in confusion; she had practically shrunken in on herself, now, shoulders hunched and gaze averted once more. "Why didn't you tell them?"

"I…don't know. If they had pressed me, or if I had slipped in the slightest, I would have been thought a liar and received a worse punishment. Maybe I was just afraid of that." Her fist clenched, against her will, and she once again remembered a face like Ichigo's; dark hair, dark eyes, a slight smile with bloodied lips. "I nearly betrayed my family's honor out of fear for my own life, and then betrayed my honor for a stranger, without reason. In other words, my feelings once again interfered with my duty. Another reason to consider myself a failure."

Ichigo scoffed in annoyance and flicked Rukia in the forehead. Startled, she drew back momentarily, and then glared up at him, only to stop when he scowled down at her in response.

"Didn't I just say it? You're human, Rukia. It's normal for you to get upset, to get thrown off balance, to make stupid decisions, or think about making them and not actually do them. You can't spend time beating yourself up for everything you believe you've messed up on or you'll just run around in a circle."

Masaki's face floated back into his mind, and he allowed himself a moment to stop and gather his thoughts.

"I used to do that when it came to my mother. All the time. Sometimes, when I'm not really thinking about it, I still blame myself. But…it's like my dad told me. I can't really take it all up on myself because Mom made her choice and stood by it—that part of it was out of my control, so it wasn't my fault. You made your choice, too. Are you going to keep blaming yourself for whatever you couldn't control in those circumstances?"

Their gazes stayed locked on each other, defiant, hard, until Rukia at last broke eye contact and shook her head once more, somewhat bitterly, Ichigo thought. "That's enough about that. The question is now what to do about this man…Urahara."

"That's simple enough," Ichigo said, turning eastward. "We go pay him a visit and get his story. Find out for ourselves just what he knows and why he decided to make contact with me at the hospital."

"You know where he lives?"

"He gave me a card with directions to his shop. I wasn't planning on letting the night end without stopping by there, so I memorized the street address and I have a general idea in my head of where the shop's supposed to be."

Rukia cast her gaze onto Ichigo's back, her lips pursing again. "I don't know if this is the smartest thing to do, Ichigo. It could be a trap."

"Considering that he found you however he did, ignoring him won't be any good either. Besides, what's the worst he could do to us?"

"If he's a Reaper exile, he could be nursing a real grudge against Soul Society," Rukia replied, her voice going cold again. "He might take us hostage, torture us and send us back."

"Or he might just want to talk, catch up with what's going on in Soul Society," Ichigo said, raising his voice just slightly to counter her. "Besides that, he didn't seem like the kind of guy that would do that kind of thing. Call it stupid if you want, but I'm going to go see him."

With that, he jumped onto the nearest roof and began to hop to the northeast, headed straight for Mitsumiya. Rukia watched him go, internally struggling with the idea of just following him or following him to subdue him and leave him at his home with no one the wiser.

Eventually, concern won out against pragmatism, and she launched into Flash Steps to bridge the gap that had grown between them.

_So much for my duty. Again._

* * *

**8:50 PM**

**Karakura Town, Mitsumiya: Urahara Shop**

Despite the fact that Mitsumiya was one of the easternmost parts of Karakura Town, bordered by Gakuenchou on the north, Kinogaya at the south, and Mashiba on the west side, Urahara's shop was a reasonable distance from Kasazaki, especially since Ichigo and Rukia saved time simply by cutting straight through Mashiba to reach the southwest part of Mitsumiya where the shop was located.

In truth, had it not been for the building's somewhat old-fashioned design—a two-tiered building with classic Japanese roof-tiling, sliding doors, brown-trimmed white walls, all of which were different from the taller, more modern buildings around it—and the large sign on top of the first tier with the kanji for "Urahara Shop", Ichigo and Rukia might have missed it, considering how small it was.

Once they landed in front of the shop from a nearby fence, they looked up at the sign, then at each other.

"This is your last chance to back out, Rukia," Ichigo said. "You were the one that thought this was a bad idea and I'm not planning on making you go through with it if you don't want to."

"If I let you go in there alone you'll probably do something stupid and need my help anyway," Rukia replied, putting on a smirk if only to appear more confident than she felt. "For the record, I still think that it IS a bad idea, but there's no talking you out of it, so I might as well make sure you don't get in over your head."

If Ichigo saw the bluff, he didn't say so, simply opting to roll his eyes instead. It was at that moment, of course, that the doors opened up wide, sliding aside with a clatter; both Reapers jumped and looked forward, hands inching towards the hilts of their zanpakutou, but stopped when they saw Urahara standing in the doorway, fan in hand.

"So you both decided to cut to the chase, as it were," Urahara said, smiling loosely. "Well, that's fine by me. Come on inside, it's kind of chilly out here tonight. Tessai would make tea for you two, but you're both spirits right now so it'd be kind of pointless."

Ichigo shrugged and followed Urahara inside; Rukia noticed that he'd folded his arms, keeping them just high enough to reach over his shoulder for his zanpakutou if necessary. Her own hand, though dangling loosely, would be able to reach for Sode no Shirayuki without pausing, if it came to that.

The first thing Ichigo noticed was that the main store was pretty normal by all accounts, stocking candy and drinks like any other variety store. Urahara led them through that part of the building without pausing, though; he kicked off his sandals before stepping up onto the next level of the building and pushing aside the door that led to the living quarters for the shop.

The living room was matted with tatami, as was expected from such a traditional-looking building. A black cat lay on top of the fridge, next to the stove, its eyes were closed and it was purring softly, lost in dreams. The only other person there, though, was Tessai, who was, as Urahara had somewhat alluded to, pouring tea for himself and for his boss at the kitchen sink. Urahara went over to a squat table at the center of the room and settled himself on the floor there, beckoning Ichigo and Rukia to come closer and do the same.

Once they took their seats on the other side of the table, Urahara snapped his fan shut and placed it down; the noise caused the cat to bristle and awake. Though he only looked at the cat for an instant, Ichigo could have sworn that it was _glaring_ at Urahara, almost as if it knew that he was responsible for waking it up.

"First things first. I feel it's only fair to warn you that I'm answering any questions you have on a strictly need-to-know basis," Urahara said. "That is, if you ask a question, and you don't need to know the answer, you don't get the answer. If that's not to your liking, you can feel free to leave now."

Ichigo grunted in annoyance. "I've got school in the morning, so let's quit beating around the bush. First off, why'd you call us here? Secondly, how'd you find Rukia outside of my place? Third, why do you know about Soul Society?"

Urahara rubbed the stubble on his chin and smiled. "Well, very good questions. To answer your third question first—that's on a need-to-know basis. Suffice it to say that whatever you suspect about me is about as likely to be right as wrong. To answer your second question, I happen to have particularly keen senses. Or a machine that picks up these sorts of things, but who knows for sure. And for your first question, I invited you here simply to offer a helping hand of sorts."

"What kind of helping hand? The kind you offered to me?" Rukia asked, brows furrowing.

"No, no, don't be silly, Miss—?"

"Kuchiki. Rukia Kuchiki."

Urahara raised an eyebrow. "Ah, you're a Kuchiki? If you had said that when we first met, I wouldn't have bothered making that offer. I really must have offended your sense of duty when I—"

"You did, actually," said Rukia shortly, "but that doesn't matter. Now continue."

"Very well. As I was saying, I called you here to offer you a helping hand, in the sense that I have resources that Soul Society would not give to you two as readily as I would. Should you ever need those resources, you would only need to call on me to provide it, free of charge in most cases."

"Resources like what, exactly?" Ichigo asked.

Urahara's eyes lit up at that, and he pushed his hat back and up a bit on his head, grinning. "A quiet place to do some heavy training, for one. Information about the workings of Soul Society that you can only get from the Great Spirit Library. Medical treatment for your spiritual bodies if you're badly injured. Or, if you want, some hands-on lessons in battle. If you don't care for any of that, that's fine, as well—this meeting was just for the sake of making myself known to you. Whether you take this offer or not, I will have to ask you to keep my presence here to yourselves."

Suddenly, his eyes darkened, and he frowned slightly.

"Otherwise…I'll have to take a few measures to protect the interests of myself and my employees."

Tessai came over then and set a teacup in front of Urahara, then stood behind the shop owner, arms folded, while Urahara took a calm sip from the teacup. It was at that point that Ichigo and Rukia began to sense two foreign Spiritual Pressures, distinctly emanating from Urahara and Tessai. To his surprise, Ichigo found his muscles trembling as if he were lifting something up and straining under the pressure; it wasn't until he focused more closely on his surroundings that he was able to recognize that he was actually being pushed down by their respective Spiritual Pressures. Though he had nothing else to compare them to (aside from Rukia's Spiritual Pressure) he could say without doubt that they were much stronger than he was, much stronger than Rukia was.

_Maybe this was a bad idea after all,_ his more sensible and completely-scared-out-of-its-wits part of his brain said to him. But, as soon as he'd come to that realization, it was over, and he was suddenly able to breathe easier again. Urahara merely put his smile back on, put down the teacup, and picked up his fan, snapping it open once more and cooling himself down rather idly.

"I hope we can reach an understanding, either way," the shopkeeper said, smiling as he put two cards on the table with his free hand. "If you would like some time to think over my offer, take these and call me back at your leisure."

Rukia took the one in front of her, but Ichigo, after taking a few seconds to gather his nerves, shook his head. "Think it over? After what you just did? No, I'd rather be sure right now that you have no reason to come after me in the future. If I accept your little deal, we'll be clear, right? No more threats on my life, no more pressure to shut me up—because we'll be in it together, so to speak."

Rukia stiffened and glared heatedly at Ichigo, beginning to speak, but Urahara raised a hand, and she bit the words back instinctively, not trusting that he wouldn't shut her up with another burst of Spiritual Pressure.

"Yes, that's the idea," Urahara said, continuing to fan himself. "I just wanted to be sure that my message was crystal-clear, just now." His tone became slightly serious again. "I know I'm rather…shall we say, easy-going, at least as far as my appearance is concerned. But make no mistake. When it comes to the well-being of the people that are under my protection, I don't fool around. If you couldn't respect my wishes in regards to their safety, I wanted to make sure you understood that whatever the consequences were, I am capable of acting in their defense."

Ichigo continued to stare defiantly into the older man's face, and then nodded tersely. "They're like your family, so you protect them. I can understand that."

Urahara smiled. "Very good. Then we've settled amicably, I take it?"

"Yeah." Ichigo then turned to look at Rukia. "What about you? You were gonna say something, weren't you?"

Rukia scoffed and looked away, a tired frown on her face. "You're a fool, to trust this man." _But, as rashly foolish as you are, sometimes, Ichigo, this is our only choice now. If he can't be assured of my silence, he'll eliminate both of us as a threat._"Nevertheless, there isn't much of a choice, as you said. I'm withdrawing my objections."

"We're done here, then," Urahara said, pulling off his hat and bowing his head for a moment. "Ichigo-kun, Lady Kuchiki, it's a pleasure to be at your service. All you have to do is call the number on the card and I can set you up with whatever you need."

"Please, don't call me that, I hear it enough at home," Rukia said, her voice matching the weariness on her face. "If you must, Kuchiki-san is perfectly fine."

Urahara put his hat back on and stood up; his smile became deviously twisted. "Kuchiki-dono it is, then."

Rukia growled a bit, but didn't bother to correct Urahara, and stood up, frowning darkly. Ichigo sighed and put a hand on Rukia's shoulder, and then pointed his thumb at the exit. "We don't have time for this, Rukia. Let's just leave already. Patrol, remember?"

"…yes," Rukia said, visibly calming herself down. "You're correct." She inclined her head at Urahara, and then Tessai. "Gentlemen. Excuse us. I bid you good night."

With that, she and Ichigo left immediately, leaving Urahara to keep smiling at the doorway until he felt their Spiritual Energies in transit, moving farther and farther away from the shop. Once they were gone, he sat back down and closed his fan, letting out a puff of air from his nose.

Atop the fridge, the cat swished its tail and gazed down on Urahara, with a slightly less fierce expression than before. "My, my, Urahara," it said, with a man's deep bass. "I haven't seen you do that in a while. You didn't have to scare those two halfway to death like that to make a point, did you?"

"That's not usually the way I prefer to do things, Yoruichi, but this particular situation warranted a show of force," Urahara replied, before taking another sip of tea. After swallowing the mouthful, he put the cup down again and continued addressing the cat. "Kuchiki-dono is very much a lady of her house—they take matters of duty and honor seriously, and you of all people should know that considering whom you used to play with. I had to make it clear that if she was going to make up for her own self-inflicted 'neglect' of her duties when she so graciously decided to not mention me to the 46, that I would take very great exception to it, and respond accordingly."

Yoruichi's tail twitched again. "In other words, you wanted her to accept responsibility for her actions, and so you decided to scare her into it. As usual, Kisuke, your logic is impeccable."

Urahara simply laughed again, shaking his head. "But of course it is. I haven't lived as long as I have without picking up a few tricks, you know."

"Still, I have to wonder. Now that you've come into contact with the girl again, do you still intend to dispose of…_that…_by using her?"

Urahara's laughter trailed off at Yoruichi's question, and he adjusted his hat unconsciously, taking the teacup back into his hand and staring down at the still-warm liquid. "No, that wouldn't be the best idea. Not anymore, anyway. For one, this agreement of ours hasn't put her in a position where I could easily pass it on to her, or actually expect her to hide it properly, whether she knew that she was hiding it or not. Had she accepted my offer to disappear, it would be a completely different story—but for now, the best I can do is to keep it here and continue to study ways to dispose of it properly, as always."

Yoruichi sighed, though it came out as more of a purr, as Urahara took another sip of tea. "Very well then, Kisuke. So long as you feel that you know what you're doing, I have nothing to say."

"Thank you, milady, for keeping your faith in me," Urahara replied, with a cheerful doff of his hat. "I'll do my best to live up to it."

The cat rolled its eyes and curled up tighter, clearly intending to drift off to sleep. Urahara simply put his hat back on and took another sip of tea, while Tessai, who had been back at the teapot since Ichigo and Rukia had left, sat down at the same side of the table, carrying a cup of his own.

The two men simply sat in companionable silence, sipping down their tea, as Yoruichi's purrs rose and fell in the air.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Told you this chapter was going to be fun._

_With that done I can now say that the first arc of the story is complete (yes, for real this time). Yes, I did embarrass Don Kanonji here, but there was probably no other way for it to __turn out (or at least I couldn't think of one). I feel bad because I sort of shortchanged what I feel is an integral part of his personality (that is, his willingness to act as a role model despite being generally…useless, to put it bluntly). I gave it a small nod, but with the situation being what it was I couldn't acknowledge it as directly as the original series did. If that bothers you, I'm sorry, but I have to stand by it._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:__"dono" vs. "sama"/"Lord"/"Lady"_

_In most translations, "dono" and "sama" are usually rendered to mean "Lord" or "Lady", which is not wrong. However, there's a slight difference in their actual tone, so to speak. Aside from indicating slight old-fashioned-ness, "dono" is also used to imply that the speaker and the listener on are roughly on the same level, while "sama" (which I translate as "Lord" or "Lady" in all cases except for compounds like onii-sama) indicates more humility on the speaker's part. Urahara's use of "dono" in this chapter is mostly a matter of teasing Rukia; he's taken the formality down a notch but is keeping it just high enough to annoy her._

_Now, before I leave off today, I'd like to introduce a new section down here—it's specially-made to answer a few reviews I've gotten between when I posted Chapter 10 and when I posted now. If you need context for my answers, go to the reviews page and sort the reviews by the chapter I indicate after the reviewer's name—I can't reproduce every single review here, sorry to say._

_But enough of that, let's get to business._

_Student Review Corner:_

_Kitsumi-hime (Ch. 10)—Well, your question about Urahara just got answered, I'd say. As for Aizen…I can't say anything at all. Just keep guessing until the time of truth comes._

_BadyGuz (Ch. 10)—It is true that in the canon, Ichigo is a fast learner. However, I felt that expanding his original skill set too quickly would cheapen the story. I'm trying to take my time so that there's a real sense of him actually understanding the mechanics of what he's doing instead of instantly understanding it._

_Jiyle (Ch. 10)—The official update schedule for this story is 2x a month, though for May this is extending to 3x to make up for a chapter I couldn't finish in April. You can always check my profile to see the status of a chapter, though if I've recently posted one, it may take a while for me to update the profile to reflect that._

_To all other reviewers, I thank you for sticking it out with me. Chapter 12 will be on its way once I've gotten my notes set down solidly._

_See you next class._

_~ZS_

_EDIT: My finger missed the 3 key, it seems—as indicated in the last chapter, the events of Kanonji's show take place on June __**31, **__not June __**21.**__ My mistake, but if you're reading this, it's been fixed._


	12. Lesson 12: Competition on the Job 101

_Substitute__ School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 12: Competition on the Job 101, or Advent of the Archer_

* * *

Not much had changed for Ichigo since he and Rukia met up with Urahara on that Wednesday night after Don Kanonji's show. By unspoken mutual agreement, neither of them really spoke about the man anymore, mostly because the most they could do was continue to speculate blindly about his motives, if he had any.

So, to keep their minds off of the Urahara mystery, the two Reapers threw themselves into practicing and patrolling, respectively. Unfortunately, Don Kanonji's 'defeat' at the hospital complicated matters; when Ichigo went to school the next day, he learned from an overexcited-as-always Keigo that Don Kanonji intended to stay in town for at least another month to hunt down the "mysterious spirit calling herself a 'Soul Reaper".

Ichigo hadn't taken the statement seriously until he and Rukia had to spend the majority of Friday night running all over Karakura in an attempt to outrun Kanonji's "Ghost Bust Sedan"; Kanonji had caught a glimpse of them jumping along the rooftops while Ichigo was being forced to combine Soifon's training with mobile Kidou exercises, and when Ichigo botched a Sai spell, accidentally hitting Kanonji with it, the spiritualist was assured that he'd run into the same spirit that had treated him so roughly at the hospital, and gave chase in the car, which was surprisingly mobile and staffed with a full camera crew by some miracle of well-planned packing and planning.

Needless to say, no Soul Burials were done that night, and had a Hollow emerged it would've been a total disaster.

Worse yet, Ichigo's final exams for school had been rescheduled so that they took place during most of next week. Results would be out by the fifteenth, and classes would be over five days later. He'd already begun to hit the books double-time, and he was fairly certain he'd do all right, but the stress wasn't making it any easier to concentrate on honing his skills while on patrol, especially since there hadn't been any Hollows about aside from an extremely weak one that had emerged on Thursday night.

The other thing regarding school that was bothering Ichigo was how distracted he had been lately in class. Recently, his spiritual senses had been growing sharper, partially because of how carefully he had to monitor himself when mixing Kidou and Soifon's 'venting' exercises. He'd been able to sense Rukia's distinctly 'cool' Spiritual Energy much more readily than before, as well as the relatively low amounts that regular people had. The overall range was only slowly expanding, though, despite the clarity of the impressions within his range; if he had to guess at his limit, it was maybe a quarter of a mile around him, probably less than that.

More troubling to him was the fact that his own classmates' relatively weak Spiritual Energies were also pulling and tugging at his senses throughout the day. Most of them, he could easily, intentionally screen out, but he couldn't totally block Tatsuki, Orihime, andChadwithout significantly more effort. He didn't know what precisely that meant, but if Orihime's reaction to the earthbound spirit at the hospital was connected in any way, he had a feeling that somehow, he had begun to draw them into his new 'world'.

Had Kanonji not worn them both out and pissed them both off on Friday, Ichigo would have asked Rukia for her opinion about the situation, as he hadn't mentioned what happened with Orihime and Tatsuki at the hospital to her. However, with all the chaos of trying to shake Kanonji off their trail for good, he hadn't bothered stressing her out more, and he decided that he would take it up with her after Saturday training.

Had he known just what he was in for, he would've told her while he still had the strength to breathe without making every bone in his body cry out in agony.

* * *

**Saturday, July 3, 2:45 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Eleventh Division Barracks**

On their way to the Eleventh's barracks, Ichigo asked Rukia, "So how does this Captain Zaraki run his practices? Are we going to be using shinai, or padding?"

Rukia's response was to chuckle rather lowly and say, "You'll see."

Right now, what Ichigo was seeing was scaring the living daylights out of him.

Here on the training field, men were flinging themselves at each other, zanpakutou drawn (and thankfully, sealed in most cases), dodging blows that would grievously injure or cripple if they had the chance to land, or taking light cuts in order to get in close and beat the living daylights out of their hapless opponents. Much to his chagrin, Ichigo could see a few women doing the same as well (though thankfully for his sanity, the ladies weren't fighting each other per se—just whoever they were closest to). More than a few Reapers were down on the ground, the upper halves of their robes in varying amounts of disarray and wounds of all sorts cut into their flesh.

"You can't be serious," Ichigo said, his voice shaking and eyes widening as he beheld the carnage in front of him. "I'm supposed to be doing THIS for two days?"

"This is the way the Eleventh Division is, Ichigo," Rukia replied, grimacing as a shorter Reaper got the upper hand on his opponent with a well-timed knee to the groin. "Their philosophy is, put simply, 'fight'."

A huge shadow cast itself over them from behind, and they jumped in fright and turned around to see Captain Zaraki looming over them, with Lieutenant Kusajishi on his shoulder as always; her zanpakutou was somewhat short by an adult's standards and had a string and wheels attached to the sheath, but she gripped it securely, just under the flower-shaped guard.

"And that's the way it'll be," the large man said, grinning ferociously as he watched his men spar. "Here, in this place, the fight is all!" He looked down at Ichigo and Rukia then with his uncovered eye, his bloodthirsty expression gradually fading back into a frown. "If you're too scared, kid, then get out of here and get someone else to 'train' you to fight. You've got no place amongst us if you're gonna snivel and cry when a battle's put in front of you."

Rather than respond immediately, Ichigo simply stared up into the massive man's face. In that single, dark eye, Ichigo could see the scorn that he'd seen when his teachers in school looked at him. The scorn that seemed to say, "You're just another punk with an attitude. You won't amount to anything. You're not worth our time."

In that moment, whatever fears he had were quieted, and determined anger took their place.

"I'm not going anywhere, sir," Ichigo replied, coolly. "This is where I'm supposed to learn, so I'll learn whatever I have to learn—simple as that."

Zaraki arched a nonexistent eyebrow in mock surprise, but didn't change his expression; he could see the indignation burning behind Ichigo's brown eyes, and knew instantly that the boy felt slighted by Zaraki's dismissive attitude.

_Oh, yes,_Zaraki thought to himself. _This kid's got a spine, all right. This ought to be good._

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Zaraki said at last, allowing himself to grin once more. "All right then. Here are the rules, such few as they are." He raised a finger. "One—if your zanpakutou's not made for hitting people when it's unsealed, you keep it sealed. If the unsealed form IS made for hitting and just happens to have a hidden power that's not about hitting people, you stick to hitting. We don't deal with that fancy Kidou-type-powers horse-shit—our division is about close-quarters combat, period." He raised another finger. "Two—you fight with all you've got and deal with the consequences on your own 'till you can crawl over to the Fourth. Try not to actually kill anyone, though. Recruiting is a pain in the ass and I don't like having to do it." Finally, he clenched his hand into a fist, and his grin widened. "Three—aside from one and two, anything goes."

Ichigo nodded, his mouth still drawn into a frown. Zaraki simply chuckled at the young man's expression, and unclenched his massive fist, gesturing to the battlefield in front of them. "Draw your sword, then. Get in there."

Ichigo grabbed hold of Zangetsu and unsheathed it with ease, gripping it tightly with both hands. "Rise, Zangetsu."

The blade shimmered in white light and entered its released state, and Ichigo let his left hand off the handle before turning to Rukia. "You're gonna stay and watch this time?"

"This isn't like the Kidou, Flash Step, or Hakuda training," Rukia said, her neutral expression perfectly masking her concern. "If you're hurt badly enough in this exercise, you'll need someone to keep you alive until you can be taken to the Fourth Division. As your liaison—and the only person here that can use Kidou to any degree, most likely—that's my responsibility."

Zaraki simply shrugged, and Lieutenant Kusajishi took that opportunity to hop off of his shoulder and onto the ground. She eyed Ichigo critically for a few moments, and then smiled broadly. "Icchi! You're gonna play with me for a while!"

Ichigo, to his credit, managed to restrain his outburst of laughter for more than two seconds.

Three seconds later, the boy was almost crying with laughter; Zaraki was already shaking his head and walking off, muttering something about how "they get dumber every year", while Rukia's lips were pursed in thought and the Lieutenant had her cheeks puffed out in annoyance.

"You wanna fight with me?" Ichigo managed to ask at last, taking a breath for the first time in what felt like minutes. "You're not serious, right, kid!"

"My name is Yachiru! Use it!" the girl replied, brows tightening. "I'm Kenny's lieutenant, you know! I'm not weak like Baldy is! He's the third seat, so he's stronger than mostly everyone else, but he fights me all the time to take my spot and loses!"

From somewhere on the battlefield, a man's hoarse scream tore the air while another man's voice roared out, "WHO THE HELL JUST CALLED ME BALD! DAMMIT, WAS IT YOU, YACHIRU, YOU LITTLE TWERP!"

Ichigo stopped laughing, but only because of how loud the voice had been, and Yachiru took that opportunity to let her Spiritual Pressure flare up, directing it straight at Ichigo. When the roiling mass of pink, vaguely-cat-faced energy washed over Ichigo, he felt his knees sag, and had he not slammed Zangetsu's tip into the ground, he would have fallen over. Rukia, of course, had seen it coming from a mile off, and had taken the first chance she got to move behind Yachiru with a Flash Step to avoid the brunt of the Spiritual Pressure wave.

_OK, so I guess I got a little too cocky,_Ichigo admitted to himself, grimacing as Yachiru stepped in front of him and continued to stare down at him with wrath burning in her eyes. _If she's serious, then I'll have to be serious too._

He slapped his hand over the Suppression Band attached to his bicep and pulled the joined ends apart, quickly shoving it into a pocket inside of his robes when it came loose. He felt the expected swell of Spiritual Energy within him, but to his surprise, it was much greater than he remembered when it stopped, and he easily stood against Yachiru's power when about a month ago, he would've still been struggling to move.

"Oh, you have one of those funny things too, that eats up your power," Yachiru said, blinking away her rage and allowing her Pressure to recede. "Did Mayurin give that to you?"

"Who?"

Yachiru frowned, as if trying to remember something. "Captain Clownface?"

"Oh, that Kurotsuchi guy? Yeah, him. I have to wear it in the real world so that I don't attract Hollows or start causing other people to see ghosts." He grinned and held Zangetsu parallel to the ground, gripping it with both hands once more. "But this isn't the real world, is it? So I can come at you full force!"

Yachiru smiled widely and nodded, drawing her zanpakutou quickly and brandishing it. "Make sure you do, Icchi!"

And with that, the little girl fell upon him like a wild animal, swinging her sword down in a straight one-handed slash; Ichigo blocked it without any trouble, but the sheer force of the strike soon had him sliding backwards, bowling over one or two other fighters as he and Yachiru flew into the 'battlefield' behind them.

By the time he'd slowed down, Yachiru had already leapt up to attack from above, and once more Ichigo blocked just in time—only for the ground to outright crumble beneath his feet, opening a decent-sized crater.

"You're fast, Icchi," Yachiru said. Her smile was still unchanged as she bounded backward from her midair attack and landed on the ground. "But just now, I felt your arms shaking. You're not strong enough to hold me back all the way, are you?"

Rather than respond verbally, Ichigo flared his Spiritual Pressure, hoping to intimidate Yachiru, and charged in to capitalize on what he thought was his best chance to win.

Unfortunately, Yachiru was entirely unfazed by his attempt to startle her, and she countered by circling around his strike and head-butting him in the ribs, knocking him down. The pain was blinding, fiercely so, and Ichigo could do nothing but lie down helplessly as Yachiru squealed in delight.

"I'll go easy on you, then, Icchi," she said, sticking her zanpakutou into the soft soil beneath their feet. "Don't cry, OK?"

Despite his best efforts, Ichigo could not follow that advice as Yachiru proceeded to punch and kick every inch of his body with bone-crushing strength and enough speed to hit ten times when it would take most people the same amount of time for one punch. Less than a minute later, Yachiru hopped up out of the crater with her zanpakutou in hand and cheerfully wandered over to one of the other Eleventh Division members. "Hey, lazybones, quit lying around! You're supposed to be fighting someone, so fight me!"

While that poor man began to scream in sheer, unadulterated terror, Ichigo, staring blankly at the blue-and-white haze that was the afternoon sky above him, managed to gather every bit of strength left in his body…and twitch his pinky once or twice.

In this insensate, half-lucid and half-pain-maddened state, he barely noticed the cool shade of the shadows that covered him from the summer heat, and only dimly comprehended the voices of the men that were speaking to each other over his prone body.

"Goddamn. Yachiru really beat the living shit out of him, huh, Yumichika?" one said; the voice was somewhat similar to the one of the man that had been yelling about being called bald earlier, but now that it wasn't so loud, Ichigo realized that the man's voice was fairly calm and flippant, and slightly less rough than he'd thought at first.

The second voice was softer, almost feminine, but there was just enough bass in it for Ichigo to recognize it as male, despite his intensely screwed-up and distorted perceptions of everything else around him. "Indeed. It seems she still lacks the ability to do anything without making a mess out of it. I still can't understand how a girl with such cuteness can be so…indelicate."

"She's the captain's kid, is why," the first voice responded. "I think he might need to go over to the Fourth, though—Yachiru says she was taking it easy but he still looks like he got run over by a horse."

"Then kindly move out of the way, please, so that I can heal him enough for him to survive the trip across Seireitei," Rukia's voice said, and though he couldn't move his mouth in the slightest, Ichigo managed to let out a choked, semi-joyous sob when he heard her speak. Neither Yumichika, the man that had come with Yumichika, nor Rukia, heard it, though; they continued to speak to each other without acknowledging Ichigo directly.

By then, though, Ichigo's senses had finally failed him, and he blacked out.

* * *

**3:15 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Fourth Division Barracks, Medical Ward A**

When he finally came back to some cognizance of himself, Ichigo could perceive nothing but a fierce, terrible burning in every fiber of his being, and the darkness of his closed eyes. Try as he might, he could not move, nor will his eyes to open up; his limbs were heavier than lead, stiffer than wood. A gentle pressure, gentler than anything he'd ever felt before, rested on what he thought was his chest, and under its touch, he couldn't bring himself to struggle anymore.

"Kurosaki-kun. Please, don't move. You'll be done here soon, but if you move, you will force me to sedate you so that you do not injure yourself further."

The woman's voice was gentle, motherly, and familiar, though Ichigo couldn't quite recognize it in his hazy state of mind.

"Who…?" he whispered.

"I'm Captain Unohana, Kurosaki-kun. Do you remember me from when we met in the Thirteenth Division's meeting room?"

The image of the woman flashed in Ichigo's mind's eye, briefly breaking up the darkness around him, but he couldn't articulate himself well enough to say anything but one word. "…Braid?"

Unohana laughed, though it was soft and rather quiet, even in the relatively empty room. "Yes, that's correct." Her voice became slightly somber as she continued speaking. "I do not know how much you remember of what happened before you came here, so allow me to tell you. It seems that you were unfortunate enough to spar against Lieutenant Kusajishi on your very first day training with the Eleventh Division. I know that your body must feel horrible right now, but thanks to Kuchiki-san's timely intervention and quick thinking, you will be able to leave Soul Society under your own power today and only feel mild stiffness when you get back into your body. She managed to mend at least part of your more serious breakages and contusions, so that I could focus more on encouraging your body to recover quickly."

"…Fight?" Ichigo asked, slowly. Unohana's hand didn't move in the slightest when he shifted slightly, rustling the cloth that he could feel lying on top of him. "I mean…can I…still?"

"By tomorrow, yes, you will be able to continue your training," Unohana said. "Provided, of course, that you either find a man in that Division that's willing to actually teach you and not just attempt to kill you. And if you stay away from Lieutenant Kusajishi. Forever, preferably, but knowing Captain Zaraki, he is likely to make you fight her again at some point if only to see if you've become skilled enough to defeat her."

Despite himself, Ichigo managed a dry laugh. "…Third seat…can't beat her. How would I?"

Though he couldn't see it, Unohana raised her other hand to her temple and shook her head, sighing so softly that Ichigo mistook it for her breathing out of her nose. "I highly doubt that Captain Zaraki would consider that aspect of the issue relevant." She lifted her hand off of Ichigo's chest, having finished applying the last of her healing techniques to his bruised body. "When you wake up again, Kuchiki-san will be here to take you back toKarakuraTown. I want you to go home and rest in your human body as well, so that you can fully heal in time for tomorrow."

Though it took a supreme effort, Ichigo managed to make his chin dip down and rise up, crudely mimicking a nod. "You're a miracle worker, Captain Unohana."

"Just Unohana-san is alright, Kurosaki-kun." She gently patted his shoulder, and Ichigo felt a sudden wave of weariness overcome what little strength he had left. "Now, rest. Please."

Ichigo was out cold before the words even left her mouth.

* * *

**4:15 PM**

**Karakura**** Town, Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

Captain Unohana had been true to her word; when Ichigo finally came out of his induced slumber, he could indeed move and walk, and Rukia was at his bedside to help him up and lead him to an area within the Fourth Division where a Senkaimon had been opened for the two of them to go back toKarakuraTown.

Mercifully, the gate deposited Ichigo and Rukia not too far from Ichigo's house. With some assistance from Rukia, Ichigo got up to his windowsill and back into his body without too much incident, but the moment he returned to his physical shell, he all but collapsed onto his bed face first, practically immobile.

"Now I find myself wondering just what Captain Unohana did to you," Rukia said dryly, watching Ichigo struggle to at least flip himself over for about a minute before she stepped in and did it for him. "Do you want me to help change your clothes, or—"

"I'm fine, dammit!" Ichigo said, his face turning bright red as he struggled to keep his voice down. "I can sleep like this no problem. You don't have to baby me like that!"

Rukia sighed and flung her hands up in annoyance. "Well, sorry for trying to help you. Honestly, why must you be such a child sometimes?"

Ichigo's response was to grunt and stare to his right, looking out of his window and seeing the urban sprawl of Karakura. Rukia watched him do this for only a few moments before speaking again.

"You're upset about losing."

Ichigo's voice hardened. "Maybe."

"Ichigo, you should have known better. She made a very good point when she reminded you just what her position was. I met the 'Baldy' she was talking about earlier, third seat Ikkaku Madarame. He said himself that there's no one else aside from Captain Zaraki that's capable of matching her, let alone—"

"_I know_," Ichigo whispered, his voice seething with anger. "I get it, OK? Stop breathing down my neck. I made one mistake, leave me alone."

Rukia almost came up with a sharp, angry retort, but restrained herself—not out of a sense of propriety, but more because she realized what was going on. Ichigo was sulking now, showing his true teenage broodiness, and if he wasn't going to make an effort to stop feeling sorry for himself, she wouldn't bother trying to talk to him.

"Very well then. I'll be back at the usual time to pick you up tomorrow. You remember Captain Unohana's orders. Follow them."

The Hell Butterflies that had escorted them through the still-open Senkaimon fluttered out of the room and back down to where the portal stayed open for Rukia to re-enter. Without hesitation, she crossed back over to the sill and spared Ichigo one last glance over her shoulder before leaving him alone in his room.

Alone at last, Ichigo simply stared up at the ceiling, and slowly clenched both of his hands into fists, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Dammit!"

* * *

**Sunday, July 11, 3:30 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Near Soukyoku Hill**

The week between his failed attempt at training with the Eleventh Division and his return to Soifon's teachings seemed like an eternity to Ichigo. On the fourth of July, the day after his manhandling at Yachiru's hands, he and Rukia had returned to the Eleventh, as expected, and while Zaraki and Yachiru had nothing positive or negative to say about the previous day's spectacle (well, aside from Zaraki's comment of "Either you've got balls or a lot of luck if you're still walking after what happened to you yesterday"), most of the other Eleventh Division members, especially the ones that Ichigo sparred with, almost seemed to pity him for somehow earning a beating from their lieutenant.

Said pity, of course, was expressed rather mockingly; none of the seated officers (that he knew of) sparred against him that day, and the men (and the odd woman) that he sparred with asked him if he wanted to take a break whenever he began to breathe just a little faster than usual, and after the third time, it got so annoying that Ichigo would simply fling himself at them to shut them up.

While this recklessness won a few of his spars (and got him a few congratulatory-yet-predatory grins from Zaraki), they also compounded his injuries, and after healing him up again, Captain Unohana had forbade him from going on patrols for the next week as a "punishment" for re-injuring himself (and the smile she'd had on her face when she gave said order was somehow so beatific and terrifying all at once that he couldn't even harbor the idea of ignoring her). With nowhere to go in the evenings, Ichigo had been doing nothing but studying for his exams and taking said exams; by the time Sunday the eleventh came around, he had math, literature, and science all but pouring out of his ears while trying to keep up with Soifon's murderous sprinting regimen.

Needless to say, he'd left a pretty nice impression of his face, and various parts of his body, on quite a few trees all throughout Saturday afternoon—much to Soifon's extreme annoyance.

Luckily for his continued good health and Soifon's thinning patience, Ichigo had managed to largely overcome this obstacle come Sunday. When Soifon took him into the forest and told him to run sprints until he couldn't see straight, he did so without complaint or hesitation, and came back a bit winded but otherwise focused, much to her surprise.

"I suppose your stamina has improved after all," she said, once he leapt from the trees where he'd been doing his exercises and presented himself to her. "Your poor showing yesterday was a farce, then. Or you got lucky today."

"No, yesterday was pretty bad," Ichigo replied, straight-faced. "I've just got less on my mind today. What do you want me to do now, Captain?"

Soifon arched an eyebrow slightly at his newfound seriousness (around this point yesterday, he'd been covered in bruises from hitting trees and was generally a wreck; she'd had to literally beat the skittishness out of him during Hakuda training, and even after that he'd lacked focus). "Well, you've managed to reach the point where you can probably do basic Flash Steps without too much effort. I can tell from the way you were moving earlier that the Kuchiki girl has had you practicing your venting exercises while running the sprints." She frowned. "That is not the way I like to teach recruits, because they tend to get ahead of themselves and try to perform Steps without being able to control how quickly they can gather and vent their Spiritual Pressure. However, you seem to have overcome that. Is that true?"

Ichigo nodded, and Soifon returned the gesture with one of her own. "Good. Then all you need to do is push yourself forward with the Pressure once it's gathered inside of your body. As you practice more, you'll be able to move backward as well, or sidestep, or ascend and descend—it's all a matter of how you direct your Spiritual Pressure."

She took that opportunity to demonstrate what she meant, and made a Flash Step upwards, landing lightly on one of the branches overhead. Ichigo now stood alone in the clearing below, with plenty of space to practice.

"Move to one end of the field and make a single Flash Step as far as you can. Your body will stop when it can't take the stress anymore."

Again, Ichigo nodded, and took a breath to steady his nerves, closing his eyes. He knew that Soifon had been disappointed by his total failure yesterday, and that whatever good impression he'd made today would be completely wrecked if he didn't focus and continue to give 100% of his effort. In his mind's eye, he could still see Yachiru's cheerful face smiling at him, Zaraki's hungry grin, and the mocking sneers of the Eleventh Division—

He grunted, and pushed those images out of his mind. His Spiritual Pressure reflexively formed and gathered within him. He opened his eyes and took a wide step forward, pushing his Spiritual Pressure out of his back.

He could feel the momentum _push_him along, and then everything around him bled into a swirling cone of color. He could still tell, if barely, where the forest floor was, and the path directly in front of him, clear for now, was blurry but otherwise discernible. After what seemed like only three seconds, a burning sensation began to spread from his back to the rest of his body, and his Spiritual Pressure weakened. The blurring faded; the feeling of the wind rushing in his face faded; all of it stripped away from him—and he came to a crouched, sliding stop, just shy of running into a tree that had come into his line of sight just a second before.

His back, and forehead, was damp, slick with sweat, and his temples were pulsing rapidly, but there was no doubt in his mind when he turned back towards where he'd started.

The vaguely circular clearing was maybe only fifteen or twenty feet in diameter. He'd covered that entire distance in (what felt like, to him) one Flash Step.

From her perch above, Soifon hummed thoughtfully. Being a captain, a trained assassin, and a high-speed hand-to-hand combatant, she'd had no trouble perceiving and analyzing Ichigo's movement. He'd been wasteful with his Spiritual Pressure, pushing it out of himself constantly instead of using a short burst to propel himself until his motion gave out, but that was to be expected of a beginner. It would've helped if he remembered to take his armband off, as well, since he wouldn't have burned through most of his accessible reserve.

_Not bad at all, though, to clear a distance like that in one continuous step on his first try,_ she thought, standing up and hopping down to where Ichigo was now leaning against the tree, huffing for breath as his body recovered from the strain he'd just put on it. _There's hope for him yet._

"Feeling dizzy, I take it?" she asked.

Ichigo had no breath to speak, so he nodded loosely instead, panting.

"Well, part of that is normal. The other part of it comes from you deciding to make the number-one beginner's mistake. Just because you need to vent Spiritual Pressure to move forward, does not mean that you need to keep on venting it to keep moving forward. You need only the occasional force to sustain your motion, not a constant stream."

After taking a moment to process this, Ichigo nodded again, breathing more slowly as color came back to his face. "…Will that help the hurting stop, too?"

"Yes, in time. But not until you learn how to stagger your bursts of Spiritual Pressure to keep yourself in motion." She reached down and grabbed his forearm, bodily pulling him up to his feet. "Enough lying around. Your exercises this week are to concentrate on controlling how you propel yourself. After we do Hakuda, I'll show you the proper technique. You should be more than capable of grasping it, so I expect you to do it properly without more than one demonstration."

Ichigo allowed a rusty laugh to bubble out of his chest. "Yes, ma'am," he said, the laughter evident in his voice; Soifon frowned.

"What do you find funny, Kurosaki?"

"That's the first compliment you've actually given me, at least to my face. Most of the time you're talking about how much I suck."

Soifon pressed a hand to her forehead and grunted in annoyance. If Ichigo had known her better, or had just been more attentive, he might have noticed the way her tone became extra-dismissive to deflect the fact that he was right. "A statement of fact is not a compliment, Kurosaki."

Ichigo chuckled again and smirked, his expression speaking for him. He toned it down when Soifon began to stare up at him and glare an imaginary hole into his forehead; to distract her, and keep their lesson going, he shrugged Zangetsu off of his shoulder, gently resting sword and sheath on the ground, and drew his fists up.

"Hakuda was next, right? Let's get started."

Soifon eyed Ichigo critically, and then adjusted the orange sash at her waist and straightened her captain's jacket before hopping backwards, her body loose and neutral still.

"You remembered it," she said. "Good. I was afraid I was going to have to kick you in the head again in order to teach you the lesson."

"'True combat is about masking your intention to strike until you strike,'" Ichigo replied, repeating the first words Soifon had spoken to him yesterday, after beating him roundly for his distraction during sprints. "I've got no plans to forget that anytime soon."

Soifon then allowed herself a smile—a small one, practically microscopic, but a smile nevertheless, before schooling her features back into cold neutrality and rushing at Ichigo. When she got into striking range, she let fly with a punch that would've left Ichigo breathless—if it had been aimed at Ichigo a month earlier. However, that Ichigo was gone, replaced by one that had increased understanding of his own limits and what he could do to push himself. Instead of taking the blow, he parried it with his left hand and countered with a punch from his right; Soifon ducked it easily, and Flash Stepped to the side, then forward, going around him in one continuous step. As she attacked again, Ichigo turned smoothly, or rather finished turning smoothly, and blocked the kick that came at his head.

From there, the rest of the afternoon passed in a back-and-forth exchange of attacks. Ichigo, much to his dismay, never actually landed one, but he was able to anticipate some of Soifon's movement strategies and could at least react to most of her moves, so he wasn't bruised up by the end of the day—certainly progress overall, as far as he was concerned. Also of note was that Soifon had been stern, but not soul-breaking harsh, when correcting his stances or reprimanding him for something he had done wrong.

Ichigo supposed that was progress, too.

* * *

**Tuesday, July 13, 3:45 PM**

**Karakura**** High School**

As Ichigo and his friends once more split off for the day after another restless day of classes (restless in part because of the results that were to come out in two days for their final exams), he sensed a familiar cold presence nearby. Sighing, he dug a hand into his pocket and checked to see if Alfred's pill was still there. As he did so, the Badge attached to his backpack began to vibrate, shrieking about a Hollow nearby.

Despite himself, Ichigo grinned; the Badge hadn't gone off in some time, mostly, he supposed, because his and Rukia's routine, relentless patrols of the town kept the number of weak Hollows low. After the mind-numbing tedium of final exams, and the contrasting excitement of finally getting somewhere in his training, he was ready to purify a Hollow once more. Rukia had taught him a little bit about trying to use Hadou number 4, White Lightning; he'd been able to cast the spell, but even with his Suppression Band his restraint was poor enough that he couldn't quite control the power of the spell and it had misfired spectacularly, knocking him flat on his ass. By the time he was due to run another Kidou session, this weekend, he was hoping that he would be able to fire it correctly, or at least ask that Hinamori lady how to do it.

As soon as he got to his bike, he unchained it and pedaled off towards where Rukia's Spiritual Energy was waiting, a block or so down the road from his street. Sure enough, in the distance he could see Rukia's black-clad form hopping down from a streetlight as he approached, and soon she was striding along smoothly beside him.

"Hey there," Ichigo said. "Why'd you wait up? Normally you just go off and handle this kind of thing by yourself."

"Something's different this time," Rukia replied, her voice slipping into "ice princess" tones. "Can't you feel it? There's someone else near that Hollow's signature. I don't know why he or she is there, but it feels like they're…waiting."

Ichigo blinked, and then re-concentrated, trying to find the unnatural, crawling chill that a Hollow gave him up ahead. Soon enough, he did find it, though he could only barely sense it—and like Rukia said, just nearby there was another, faint signature.

"They're so fuzzy, though," Ichigo mumbled. "How'd you even know someone else was there, let alone where the Hollow was?"

"I got the Hollow alert about a minute or two ago while I was in this area. As I got within range of sensing the Hollow, I picked up that other Spiritual Energy and pulled back. I knew you'd sense my stationary energy and come seek me out to figure out what was going on."

As they came to the residential area where the signal originated, Ichigo's brow furrowed. Right there, facing him in the middle of the street, stood a lean, dark-haired young man, dressed in white clothes with a cross-shaped zipper track that spanned the length of his long-sleeved shirt. From the distance where he and Rukia were, Ichigo couldn't quite see, but it appeared that the young man was wearing a rather plain set of glasses, somewhat obscuring his hard gray eyes.

"Good evening, Kurosaki-kun," the stranger said cordially. "I take it you and your friend there sensed the Hollow as well."

Ichigo was startled by the bluntness of the statement, and nearly fell from his bike, though he caught himself just in time. Rukia, meanwhile, was watching the stranger with narrowed eyes, and began to very subtly prepare a Kidou, just in case.

The stranger adjusted his glasses with an air of calm that would have impressed Byakuya, were he there. "That's not necessary, miss. I only came to make a demonstration. We aren't going to fight."

With that, he raised his left hand, and something around his wrist glinted in the sunlight; closer inspection would have revealed that it was a small cross on a chain. Suddenly, a burst of Spiritual Energy formed in that hand, and shaped itself into what looked like a bow. Without pausing, he turned around and drew back the 'string' with his right hand, then loosed a jagged, pointed-tip burst of Spiritual Energy that flew over the rooftops with speed and power that Ichigo hadn't seen before.

However, neither he nor Rukia understood what exactly this young man had done until they both felt the Hollow's Spiritual Energy drop, then disappear. The young man looked over his shoulder, noting the shocked looks on their faces.

"I am Uryuu Ishida," he said, turning away once more. "I am a Quincy, just as capable of exterminating Hollows as Soul Reapers are, if not better. And…I hate Soul Reapers—which includes both of you, if I'm not mistaken."

Ichigo's fists clenched up on his handlebars, practically crushing the grips. "If you're trying to say something, say it already and quit screwing around! I don't have time for your games!"

Ishida simply shook his head. "I've said what I had to say. Just keep that in mind, the next time we meet, I intend to prove to you the truth. The truth about just how useless Soul Reapers are."

With that, he walked off, and then disappeared in what appeared to be Flash Steps. Grunting in annoyance, Ichigo dredged up his brief impressions of Ishida's Spiritual Energy and Pressure—cold, like Rukia's, but also somewhat 'bright'—and began seeking it out, but much to his frustration he couldn't get a bead on it. "Dammit! How is he hiding his power?"

"…he's a skilled sensor," Rukia replied, and Ichigo looked over to her to see that her hand was crackling with the energy for a Crawling Rope spell, which gradually dissipated as he watched. "I thought his guard was down when he turned away, but he used that high-speed movement right when he sensed my intention to bind him—and my own Spiritual Pressure was suppressed to my limit."

"You ever heard of these Quincy guys before?"

Rukia frowned, turning over her memories. "Vaguely. Perhaps a teacher at the Academy mentioned it off-handedly once or twice, but my recollection of my non-practical education is a bit…lacking. Maybe one of the captains will know."

"Are you sure we should ask them, though?" Ichigo said. "I mean, think about it. This guy can see spirits, and purify Hollows, right? What's the harm in that?"

"That whole debacle with that Kanonji man should be proof enough of what the 'harm' could be. Our superiors should know about this Quincy," Rukia said, her frown deepening into a scowl as she remembered that the "spiritualist" was still skulking about Karakura looking for them. "We have to tell them, at least. One of them will be able to do research at the Great Library if they don't know the answer."

Ichigo got off his bike and eased it to the ground so that he could fully face Rukia, towering above her with folded arms. "What about Urahara, then? He might know something."

Rukia's voice and back stiffened visibly. "I'd rather not bring him into this."

"And I don't want to bring in a gun to kill a fly," Ichigo shot back, "which is what you're proposing. This Ishida's not a normal guy, I get it. But he's not like Kanonji, he actually seems to know what he's doing, and if he's helping control the Hollow population I don't see why we should bring Soul Society into it without knowing if we have to. I still say we ask Urahara."

"Why do you trust that man so much?" Rukia snapped. "We hardly know what he wants from us or just how trustworthy he is, and yet you seem insistent on bringing this very serious problem to him! Why?"

"Look, I don't want other people to get all wrapped up in this business, all right?" Ichigo yelled. "Ishida's already a little involved. I know that! But if there's a way to end this without him being any more involved, I'd prefer that way over anything else!"

Rukia drew back, her lips pursed. She was stunned at this display of outright anger, but could understand what Ichigo was trying to do. Despite Ishida's poor attitude, Ichigo was trying not to involve any other humans in what he perceived to be his "life" as a Soul Reaper.

The effort was admirable, or would be in any situation that was not the one they were in now.

"You're being irrational, Ichigo. If you want to keep him out of this, then we have to tell Soul Society so that they can decide what to do."

Ichigo shook his head. "Maybe so, but not until we get the full story, one way or another. You don't always have to defer to someone higher up to get answers, Rukia, and sometimes you can't always trust them. In this case, considering what could have happened to you or me back when you gave me your powers, I don't trust them to resort to the peaceful solution in a matter like this, and I don't think you should either."

Rukia's teeth began to grind together. Naturally, she understood where he was coming from, due in no small part to her own checkered history with authority figures when she was younger, but this was just too much.

"What we feel is not relevant. What matters is doing our job!"

Ichigo shook his head and threw his hands up in annoyance, then pulled up his bike from the ground and pedaled off.

"And where are you going?" Rukia demanded, rushing to catch up with him before he got too much speed.

Ichigo kept his eyes forward and scowl on as he rounded a corner. "Home. Then to Urahara's, to see if he knows anything. Do what you want, but don't try to stop me."

"And if I tried?"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed, even as he kept pedaling. "Rukia. I owe you a lot, and I don't think I'll ever feel like I've paid you back. More than that, though, you're my friend. But I'm not going to compromise with you on this, and I'm sure you can figure out what that means."

The implied threat left Rukia without words to respond, even though she was surprised that Ichigo really did consider her a friend. He had often times been serious with her before, but never such that he would say something so candidly, without regret. Rukia didn't doubt that if it came to a real knuckle-dragging fight, her experience would let her match Ichigo's power, but she really didn't want to put that to the test.

"This Ishida guy is a dick. He really is. That doesn't mean that he deserves to get his life wrecked by anything we do for no good reason. If he's a threat, then fine, we do what we have to. But if he isn't, then why should we interfere? Why should we risk throwing him under the bus just because our 'duty' says so? Is that fair? Is that what Soul Society thinks is right? If it is, you can't expect me to put that kind of justice over my own."

_Because your pride won't allow it,_ Rukia added to herself, sighing. _Damnable men._"…You have to take responsibility for whatever happens, Ichigo," she said at last, her voice quiet. "If it comes down to you or Soul Society, I…I can't stand with you on this. My—" She almost said _conscience_, but she couldn't in good faith say that it went against her morals to try and resolve a situation without letting anyone get hurt. "…honor…won't allow it."

"I don't expect you to do anything," Ichigo said, his brows loosening as his pedaling slowed slightly. "You've done enough for me already. I'm not going to ask you to give up anything else for me—this is just something I've got to do."

Rukia couldn't find it in herself to keep trying to dissuade him, so she nodded mutely.

They continued on in silence.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_See? You all have your Ishida now. Really, did anyone think I was going to write a Bleach story without him of all people? Don't be daft!_

_Again, to remind you of the Romanization rules I work off of, I'm making a point to make clear when a vowel sound is drawn out in a name or a word. The last u in Ishida's first name is a long u, so it fits in this category._

_On another note, it seems that I've been fairly inconsistent when it comes to Kidou spell names. I meant to use translations for the Japanese names whenever possible, but it seems I forgot that rule for Shou (Thrust, Push) and Sai (Restrain). So, from now on I'll make a more visible effort to keep them in English, which means at some point I have to go back and do some more editing._

_This one was a little tough because I had to establish reasonable motive for either Ichigo or Rukia seeking out Urahara. I hope it comes across rather clearly that Ichigo does not actually trust him any more than Rukia does; he's sort of letting his own personal "thing" with authority and his own sense of what's fair lead his decision-making process._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_None this chapter, but I went back and added one for Chapter 11 to clarify something that sort of got lost in translation, that was brought up in a review from Kaassie (Ch. 11). I updated it right before posting this chapter, so you may have to wait before it shows up. Once it does, though, you may want to double-check it, if listening to my amateur linguistic reasoning interests you._

_Student Review Corner:_

_Kaassie (Ch. 11): As stated above, I've addressed your question about the Lady/"dono" affair in the new revision of Chapter 11. According to my research, the information I've have should be correct, but I am not by any means an expert linguist, and different sources I've looked at have said that dono is on a higher level than sama is, and vice versa. I went with what I am hoping is correct._

_Iscifil (Ch. 9): Well, I'm glad you find my writing so interesting. As to why the story isn't more popular, well, I figure that will come with time. There are a lot of Bleach stories on this site, some of which have been around a lot longer than mine. It's only natural that they get more love, because they've earned it—with any luck, I'll be able to earn that too. But that's really on me._

_At any rate, my triple update spree is done, and we're back to 2x a month now…Unless I fall behind again. See you all in June with Lessons 13 and 14._

_Till next class,_

_~ZS_


	13. Lesson 13: Reckless Endangerment 101

_Substitute__School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 13: Reckless Endangerment 101, or Clean Up the Crisis_

* * *

**Tuesday, July 13, 4:20 PM**

**Mitsumiya, Karakura Town: Urahara Shop**

Business had been slow at the Urahara Shop today, and the effects were beginning to show, as far as one Jinta Hanakari was concerned. Currently, instead of sweeping up around the front of the shop, he was busy daydreaming about baseball as usual, swinging his broom bat at imaginary pitches, while Ururu and Kai picked up the slack for him.

"Jinta, come on!" Kai grumbled as he swept a pile of trash into a dustpan that Ururu was holding for him, knowing that what he had to say was futile but feeling obligated to try anyway. "You know that Tessai will give you hell if he catches you screwing around again."

"Shut up!" Jinta snapped. "Don't get mad because you and Ururu both lost at rock-paper-scissors and had to do all the work! You're just a sore loser!"

Kai felt his normally subdued temper flaring up, and right as he got ready to give Jinta a piece of his mind, Tessai opened the door to the shop to check up on them. The first action of said checking up was to take Jinta by the shoulder and turn him around to stare down menacingly at the poor boy.

"How many times must I tell, you, Jinta, that it is ALL of your jobs to sweep up in front of the shop?" the braided man rumbled ominously. "Since you seem so intent on being a slacking lazybones, perhaps it'll be in your best interest to assign you all the cleaning for the next month—including the boss's workspace!"

Jinta's eyes bulged at mention of Urahara's private 'workshop'—the boy didn't quite know what his boss did in there, but he knew that whatever it was usually left Urahara smelling like the bad end of a sewer pipe, or completely off on cloud nine, for the better part of most days.

Before Jinta could begin to beg for a merciful death, the sound of rubber tires rolling over concrete, followed by the screech of tires braking, drew their attention to the sidewalk, where Ichigo had just pulled the brakes on his bike and was in the middle of a dismount. Rukia followed behind him, her lips drawn tight and expression neutral, though Tessai's experienced eyes could discern some weariness in her face.

"Hey! Is your boss in?" Ichigo asked Tessai and the children. "I've got something to ask him!"

The children looked at each other, and then up to Tessai, who was regarding Ichigo and Rukia rather neutrally while his hand was still weighing down poor Jinta's shoulder. "Yes, he's available, but he may want you to wait for a little bit," the man replied, adjusting his glasses. "May I ask what you need to ask him?"

Rukia sighed, her expression troubled but resolute. "We need to know if he's ever heard of a 'Quincy' before."

Tessai put a fist to his mouth and hummed, then nodded once. "Come inside, then. I'll put on some tea for you, Kurosaki-kun, and I'll tell you what I know if the boss isn't quite in the mood to share."

Ichigo nodded and followed Tessai inside, while Rukia did the same, only more hesitantly. Once the group had dispersed, Jinta shakily picked up his broom from where he'd dropped it and began to sweep, muttering something about "damn the old man's evil secret lab" to himself.

Despite himself, Kai grinned, ruffling his fingers through his freshly cut mop of brown hair before getting back to work, while Ururu sighed and followed suit.

Urahara didn't take too long to show up to greet Ichigo and Rukia; the tea Tessai poured out for Ichigo was still piping hot by the time the shop owner seated himself at the low table, fanning as per usual.

"So, Tessai tells me you want to know about the Quincy," Urahara said, his tone conversational in direct contrast to his neutral expression. "What possessed you to think I would know anything about them?"

"A hunch," Ichigo replied. "But mostly, I didn't want to take Option A, which basically amounted to 'Ask around in Soul Society and cause this Quincy guy to get killed for no good reason'. I see no reason to do that if he's purifying Hollows too."

Rukia snorted at that, and Ichigo glared at her pointedly. _I didn't ask you to come,_ his expression seemed to say. _You chose to. If you're going to be a pain in the ass, go outside or something._

Urahara pretended to pay no mind to this byplay, and waited until Ichigo and Rukia's staring match reached some kind of conclusion. Once the Deputy Reaper's eyes were focused back on Urahara, the shopkeeper displaced his hat to rub the side of his head briefly, before starting to speak.

"If this person is a Quincy, he doesn't purify Hollows," Urahara said quietly. "He kills them. And that was the problem."

Ichigo and Rukia both froze up at that, and Urahara continued, seemingly oblivious to their discomfort. "It was about 200 years or so back, wasn't it, Tessai?"

"It was, indeed, or so I heard it," the mustached man said, pouring another teacup and setting it down in front of Urahara, who politely waved it away; Tessai then took it up and began to sip it himself, leaving Urahara to tell the story.

"The Quincy were, or should I say are, spiritually sensitive humans, a lot like Ichigo-kun here was before he got your powers, Kuchiki-dono," said Urahara. "They were scattered all over the world, as relatives to magic-hunting humans, and initially banded together over the mutual loss of their kind to Hollows. Their solution was to become strong enough to kill as many Hollows as they could. In a way, this could be called the polar opposite of the Soul Reapers' beliefs, which would be to purify the Hollow and let its soul go on to Soul Society. Their reasoning for it was that anything that devoured human souls, especially the souls of their relatives, didn't deserve to live in the afterlife denied to their kin."

"But, if they don't purify Hollows…." Rukia murmured, slowly coming out of her shock, "then what happens to the human soul at the Hollow's core? Doesn't that die too?"

Urahara nodded. "Unfortunately, yes." He frowned slightly as Rukia's fists balled up in her lap and her expression darkened. "And that, you see, was the problem, as I'm sure you've figured out, Kuchiki-dono."

"Would you PLEASE stop calling me that," Rukia muttered, face darkening at the unwanted name and at the information she was still processing. Urahara simply hid a smile behind his fan in response. Ichigo simply looked between them both with rapidly growing confusion.

"What are you two going on about now?" he asked, annoyed. "What did she figure out?"

"…If a soul dies, or more accurately, is destroyed, then it doesn't pass on to Soul Society," Rukia said, her brows drawing closer to each other. "And that, in turn, disrupts the balance of souls between Soul Society and the living world. Souls that die in Soul Society come to this world to be reincarnated, and souls that die here go to Soul Society. Soul Reapers exist only to maintain that balance, to help the souls on this side cross over to Soul Society. If the Quincy techniques do not send the souls to Soul Society, they would, in theory, cause the balance of souls to weigh far more heavily on this side. Eventually, that would cause the two worlds to spill over into each other, causing mass chaos and possibly worldwide destruction."

"Which is precisely why, after years of begging the Quincy to let the Soul Reapers handle the Hollows, and after years of hearing the Quincy refuse...almost every single one of them was exterminated by the Gotei 13," Urahara said. "Was it right or not? Well, I can't say that. But it was felt, by the Gotei, to be a necessary measure."

The silence after that couldn't have been cut without a butcher's knife. Rukia's brooding expression, Urahara's small frown, Ichigo's blank, shocked look—no one seemed to be in a mind to say anything.

Then, Ichigo slapped his hand down on the table, and everyone could see the vein bulging on the back of it. "They call that a necessary measure? Since when did murder become a necessary measure for anything? What a bullshit excuse!"

"Now, now, there's no need for that kind of language, and I'm sure there are people that feel the same way as you do, if they were involved in it," Urahara said. "But what's done is done, and in some ways it was the Quincy who brought it on themselves. I haven't done the necessary research, but I'm sure they could have found ways to actually purify souls if they had cared to try. Perhaps if they had been less focused on vengeance, they would have been left alone."

Ichigo growled in indignation, but could see the sense in what Urahara was saying. If the Quincy had really been endangering the world with their methods and couldn't be talked into stopping, then a fight would have been bound to come at some point. "The Gotei might have been right, or they might have been wrong. Either way, it still doesn't sit right with me—if that's why this Ishida prick hates Soul Reapers so much, I can understand, a little bit." He recalled the mocking, leering grin of the Grand Fisher's mask, and clenched his hand into a fist as he drew it off of the table, then turned to Rukia. "Now that I've heard this story I want to turn him in even less. But…he must _know_ what he's doing, right? Killing souls, not letting them go to Soul Society, throwing off the balance…"

"It's possible he doesn't," Rukia said. "If you still insist on resolving this without causing informing the proper authorities, then you could try talking to him, explaining that what his powers do is dangerous. If that fails, then he may go the way of his ancestors."

"If he proves difficult to convince, my doors are always open," Urahara added. "I'm certain that given enough time I could find an alternative to violence that would satisfy all parties."

Rukia's eyes narrowed, but she didn't bother asking him what he meant by that. Frankly, she'd had enough of trying to figure out what the man had planned, and while she wouldn't ever stop being wary of him and his motives, she wouldn't assume that everything he did had another motive behind it.

Ichigo stood up, and actually surprised Urahara and Rukia by bowing shortly to the shopkeeper. "I appreciate your help. If anything comes up, we'll consider your offer." He then turned to look down at Rukia. "Come on. I need to go home and get myself together for patrol tonight. Maybe we'll see Ishida out there again, too."

Rukia nodded and stood as well, though she didn't bother looking in Urahara's direction. However, before they left, Urahara spoke up once more.

"Ichigo-kun, Kuchiki-san," he said, and the change in Rukia's honorific was enough to make them stop and listen to him seriously. "To be honest, I would prefer if Soul Society didn't get involved in this, as well—for my own reasons, yes, and I will say that part of it does have to do with the safety of the children. However, I don't really have a right to ask that of you, so do what you believe is right."

Ichigo and Rukia both heard the weight in his voice, especially when he mentioned Jinta, Ururu, and Kai. He wasn't trying to play to their sympathies, either; he stated all of it as simple facts, and from what they could see of his face under the hat, his expression was dead serious, as it had been for almost the entire conversation.

"We'll remember that," Rukia said at last, and Ichigo, after another moment, nodded, before he and Rukia walked out of the store.

Urahara simply smiled, and closed his fan with a brisk snap once they were gone. "They're good kids at heart. They'll figure it out." With that, he stood, leaving Tessai, and Ichigo's untouched cup of tea, behind.

* * *

**Wednesday, June 14, 1:15 PM**

**Karakura****High School, Class 1-3**

Ichigo's day had been almost perfect.

Patrols had been pretty successful last night, as he'd finally begun to Flash Step properly after spending the majority of the days before trying to understand how to stagger his Pressure bursts as Soifon had explained to him on Sunday. He was admittedly not the best at it yet, but he was steadily improving; he could easily cover a good number of feet in each step, and it took well over forty or fifty in succession to tire him out im the slightest, even with his Suppression Band on. His senses were, as always, growing ever sharper, but he was also getting better at filtering what he received, as well as controlling and suppressing his own Spiritual Energy.

On the morning of the fourteenth, Yuzu's breakfast had been refreshingly delicious, and with finals over, he had nothing to worry about aside from test results coming out the next day, and, of course, the Ishida debacle.

However, the matter of the Quincy had been put out of his mind by everything else going generally well, enough so for Ichigo to think that he didn't have to rush in trying to find Ishida anytime soon. He'd hoped that they would run into Ishida last night, but since that hadn't happened Ichigo didn't feel a need to worry much about it.

Then, that morning, as soon as he arrived at his classroom, Ichigo happened to look towards the middle of the room, and saw Ishida, reading a book.

"Y-You—what the hell are you doing here?" Ichigo sputtered, pointing a finger at Ishida and ignoring all of the confused stares other people cast his way.

The Quincy simply looked up at Ichigo and sighed, shaking his head. "Why shouldn't I be in my homeroom when classes are getting ready to start?"

Ichigo began to sputter and choke in blue-faced shock and rage, but was interrupted when Tatsuki popped up at his side, shaking her head. "I knew you were still bad with faces, Ichigo," she said. "But this is ridiculous. Ishida-kun here has been in our class since the start of the school year. You've seen his face at least once by now, haven't you?"

"Indeed," Ishida remarked, turning his attention back to his book. "Now, if you don't mind, I was in the middle of something."

Ichigo felt his face start to pinch up in a severely annoyed, comical-looking frown. _Smarmy bastard! He's been here the whole time and then he makes that super dramatic entrance in front of me like we've never met before! Not that we have, exactly, but…._ He frowned, his angry rant being interrupted by a thought that just occurred to him. _Wait. He knew I was a Soul Reaper, and he has to have some kind of spiritual power. I know my senses have only started to get sharper, but why wouldn't I have sensed him before?_

Still scowling, Ichigo moved to his own seat and settled himself there, and then focused his senses, as indirectly as possible, on Ishida. To his surprise, he could barely get a bead on the Quincy's Spiritual Energy; the feeling he got from Ishida was impossible to mistake for anything else, but it was so small that Ishida felt no stronger than any of his other classmates.

_He's been suppressing it,_ Ichigo realized, grunting in frustration. _Of course I wouldn't sense him, if he's been keeping his power so low that I couldn't tell him apart from anyone else. Dammit! Right under my nose the whole time!_

Sighing, the Deputy Reaper got a tight hold on his growing anger and crushed it relentlessly, knowing that he would only be tempted to rash action if he got any more upset. _I'll save the confrontation for later,_ thought Ichigo to himself, _when it's me, him, and Rukia. Not today, though. He'd be expecting it. Tomorrow, after school…yeah, that'll be perfect._

Despite himself, his scowl darkened.

_But if I'm not careful, he'll probably sense both me and her before we can get the drop on him. He's smart, and he'll want to avoid a fight with the both of us. I'm pretty sure that Rukia and I could take him down together._

The door clattered, and Ms. Ochi walked in; sighing, Ichigo straightened himself in his seat, ready to stand whenever Kunieda called for it.

* * *

**Thursday, June 15, 4:00 PM**

**Karakura****Town, Kitakawase**

As he headed westward, towards his home in the northwestern part of Kitakawase, Uryuu Ishida absently reflected on the day's events.

Exam results had come out after lunch, and just like he had been at midterms, he was at the top of the class. Out of idle curiosity, he'd looked at Kurosaki's results, and to Ishida's surprise, Kurosaki was in the top 50, as were Kurosaki's friends Inoue and Chad.

_So he's got a punk's face and a pretty sharp brain. An odd combination, but I suppose that means I should just avoid underestimating him,_ Ishida had thought at the time.

During lunch, he'd been unbothered and got to eat in peace, aside from Michiru Ogawa's rather timid request to fix her torn plush doll (and that hadn't even been a problem, Ishida recalled, pushing his glasses up onto his face with a slight, cool smile).

Sadly, the rather quiescent atmosphere wasn't going to last long, Ishida knew. For the last couple of minutes, as he'd been walking along, he'd sensed dim, but familiar, Spiritual Energies following him about. One was ice-cold, a lot like his, but lacked the distinct feeling of "humanness" that his own aura had; it was detached, in a way. The other was warm, bright, and felt much more direct and bold.

Both of them had the sort of density that he could expect from no one except a Soul Reaper, but were greatly restrained in their output, such that if he hadn't been paying precise attention to what they felt like, he would have mistaken them for regular people.

_Kurosaki and his accomplice, no doubt. I was expecting this sooner, but I suppose that as uncouth as Kurosaki is, he's not stupid._ His gray eyes narrowed. _I might as well end the farce, then._

"Come on out, Ichigo Kurosaki. You and your Reaper friend can't hide from me," he said, coming to a stop at the top of a set of stairs. "You've been following me for a good ten or fifteen minutes—enough already."

Sighing, Ichigo came from behind a nearby building that Ishida had just passed by, Rukia falling into quiet step just behind him. The Deputy Reaper was still dressed in his normal clothes, but he had Alfred's pill and a map of Karakura in his pocket. If he had to, he'd pop the Soul Candy into his mouth and give him directions back to his house; Alfred was odd but not stupid, and would likely make it back in one piece.

"All right, Ishida. You got us," Ichigo said, grinning slyly for some odd reason. "Guess I still suck at being stealthy."

Ishida raised a hand to cut Ichigo off, frowning. "So, what do you want?"

Ichigo's grin gradually became his normal scowl as his eyebrows tightened. "I need to know something about your powers. Or rather, I need to know if what you know about your powers. You are aware that whatever Hollows you shoot with that arrow are totally destroyed, right? That their souls don't go on to Soul Society?"

"I am."

The direct, unshaken nature of Ishida's reply caused Ichigo's fists to clench briefly. He felt his armband, hidden beneath his short sleeves of his school uniform, began to burn and clench, signaling to him that he was inadvertently trying to raise his Spiritual Pressure past the limits the armband would allow.

"Is that all you've got to say about it?" Ichigo snapped. "You do know what that means for the balance of the worlds, right? You're keeping souls out of Soul Society and in this world, creating an imbalance!"

"I've heard that line of reasoning," Ishida said. "You've been talking to Soul Reapers about the Quincy, haven't you?"

Ichigo shook his head. "No. We asked someone with no affiliation to them at all. In the interest of trying to resolve this without getting you maimed or killed, at any rate." His tone grew even harder as he took a step or two up the flight of stairs. "Listen to me, Ishida. I don't want to turn you in to Soul Society, but you're going to have to stop hunting Hollows or find a way to make your arrows send them along to Soul Society instead of killing them. If you don't, we'll have to turn you in." He paused, as if unsure of his next words, and then continued speaking. "You can't live your life based on what happened to the Quincy. What's done is done."

Ishida showed no reaction to any of Ichigo's words, and when Ichigo finished speaking, the Quincy simply adjusted his glasses and school bag before responding.

"What happened to my people before my time is of no concern to me. I'm not foolish enough to think that they had no part in their own extinction. My reasons for disliking the Soul Reapers come entirely from my own experiences with them. And that is that. As for your other 'demands', I refuse. Ultimately, the life of a human being is more important than that of a Hollow's, and if the human can be saved when the Hollow attacks them, then that is what matters most."

Rukia shook her head, sighing. "It can't be that cut and dry. Hollow or not, a soul is a soul. It's entirely hypocritical to say that it's right to protect Human souls and kill Hollows entirely. Of course, a living human's individual life is important, but that gives no one the right to prevent the soul trapped at the core of the Hollow from experiencing a new, pure life in Soul Society."

"Believe what you want," Ishida said, reaching into his pocket with his left hand, "but you're not going to sway me. I picked this path a long time ago, for my own reasons, and I'm not going to turn my back on this matter."

"Then I'm sorry, but you're going to need to go to sleep for a while," Ichigo said, inching his hand towards the pocket where Alfred was waiting. "I promise I'll do my best to keep Soul Society from trying to—"

Ishida shook his head and pulled out a circular tablet, gripping it with his pointer finger, middle finger, and thumb. "Stop right there, Kurosaki. Don't force my hand."

Unwilling to take the risk, Ichigo froze. "What's that?"

Ishida's face might as well have been carved from stone. "It's Hollow bait."

Ichigo's face lapsed into brief shock, but he hid his fright away behind a ferocious growl, and a menacing stare, as quickly as he could. "You wouldn't dare."

"I would. If I had to, that is." Ishida's face remained impassive, but his voice took on a questioning tone as he continued. "I wonder, though…would you be able to do better than I at exterminating the Hollows that would come down on this town if I did?"

"Are you wearing those glasses for show?" Ichigo yelled. "Dumbass, this isn't a game! What the hell do we have to get innocent people involved in this business for! There's no reason for this!"

Ishida allowed himself to frown, and he said, "There is now."

Ichigo could feel Rukia Flash Step forward, but by the time she was in arm's reach of Ishida, the Quincy boy was moving to the side to evade her…and his fingers were crushing the bait.

As the white particles of the bait's remains scattered in the air, Ichigo rushed up the stairs and tackled a still-vulnerable Ishida to the ground. Angrily, Ichigo grabbed Ishida's shirt and pulled the Quincy close, staring down with hatred burning in his auburn eyes.

"Goddamn it! You idiot! What did you do that for?"

"You don't have the time to waste on me now," Ishida said evenly, ignoring the smog Ichigo's breath was putting onto his glasses. "Very soon, Hollows will be here. You've been a Soul Reaper long enough to know who they'll be going after first. Don't you?"

Unbidden, images of Karin, Chad, Inoue, and Tatsuki all rose to Ichigo's mind, and despite himself his body began to quiver. Ishida continued speaking, apparently oblivious to Ichigo's distress.

"Your shaking indicates that you've grasped the obvious answer to that question. In that case, I would advise that you go deal with that instead of sitting here on top of me. Go and preserve that balance you and this other woman were talking about. Give me a reason to believe…no, prove to me that I should leave the fate of innocent souls to an organization that couldn't even save _one man._"

At the last part, Ishida's frown became more pronounced, as if he'd swallowed something bitter. Ichigo noticed this, but quickly forgot it as the images of Karin and his friends continued to blitz his mind and work him into a passionate frenzy. Roaring in rage, Ichigo stood up, pulling Ishida up with him, and punched the Quincy in the stomach rapidly and repeatedly, ignoring Rukia's indignant shout. Each blow made Ishida choke in pain and surprise, but it wasn't until the fourth one that he finally lost consciousness.

"What are you doing, Ichigo?" Rukia shouted. "Have you lost your mind?"

Ichigo rounded on her, shoulders and chest heaving, and she stepped back in shock; his eyes were burning with rage, fear, determination, and desperation all at the same time, and she could tell that he was just barely managing to string together a plan of action.

"Bind this idiot," he said, his voice cold and angry, "and you carry him while we book it to Urahara's place to drop him and all of my crap off there. Then, you need to make the call to Soul Society and get us some backup for the Hollows that are bound to drop on our heads while I try to make sure that my sister and my friends are all right."

"I can't make the call until the bait starts to work," Rukia replied. "Unless you've changed your mind about turning this fool in, that is. If that's the case, we can blame it all on him when the others come."

That gave Ichigo pause, and his racing thoughts briefly slowed to reconsider his original objective. Ishida's words from two days earlier—'_the next time we meet, I'll prove to you just how useless Soul Reapers are',_ as well as the Quincy's demands of moments ago to 'prove' that he and Rukia could do their jobs.

"Was he planning something like this from the start?" Ichigo asked, his voice a harsh whisper. "Dammit…."

Rukia didn't hear this, and looked upward, frowning. She could, if dimly, feel a number of Hollows beginning to mass on the edges of the city, and her Soul Phone was vibrating wildly, as she'd put it on vibrate to avoid alerting Ishida should a stray message for her have arrived.

"Ichigo. Whatever we're doing, we have to do it now—the Hollows are starting to gather. Are we going to Urahara's shop?"

Ichigo shook himself slightly, as if waking up from a deep sleep, and nodded once, rushing down the steps back to his bike and picking it up.

"Yeah, we are. Come on, let's hurry."

With two muttered invocations, Rukia bound Ishida's arms up with a Restrain spell and sealed the deal with a Crawling Rope before slinging him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. From there, she took off running after Ichigo, who'd already started biking like mad to the south.

* * *

**4:13 PM**

**Karakura ****Town, Mitsumiya: Urahara Shop**

Urahara, sitting at his low table after a day's hard work in his private quarters, had just finished a cup of lemonade when Ichigo and Rukia entered the back room of the shop with a still-unconscious Ishida in tow. At the sight of Ichigo's sweat covered brow and Rukia's dark frown, the shopkeeper simply adjusted his hat, looking between their faces without any comment for some time.

"Not a good day, I take it," Urahara said at last, casually examining Ishida, slung as he was over Rukia's shoulder. "What's happened?"

Ichigo's glare at Ishida would have put a hole into the Quincy's skull, if possible. "This asshole is the Quincy we were telling you about. He had the nerve to break goddamn Hollow bait or whatever not more than ten minutes ago. We brought him here because we can't risk him running off while we inform Soul Society about the swarm of incoming Hollows."

Urahara nodded and stood up, his eyes serious. "Ah, I see. Well, by all means, leave him here and get to work, then. I would offer my employees' help in the containment effort, but considering that you're calling Soul Society in, I'm afraid my hands are a bit tied."

Ichigo nodded off-handedly to acknowledge Urahara's words, as he was too busy digging into his pocket for Alfred's pill. Once he was out of his body, he pulled off his Suppression Band and shoved it into Alfred's hands.

"You stay here, Alfred, and help Urahara here keep an eye on that guy," Ichigo said, pointing to where Rukia was leaving a still-bound Ishida on the floor. "I'll come back for you later."

"Understood, sir," the Soul Candy said, opting for a two-fingered salute instead of the full one he was so apt to pulling off; Ichigo rolled his eyes, but didn't respond, choosing to spend the valuable time on running out the door instead. Rukia began to follow him, but before she left, she looked back at Urahara and Ishida briefly, her expression still dark and somewhat inscrutable.

Despite the tenseness in the air, Urahara smiled. "Kuchiki-san. You still don't trust me, do you?"

"I wish Ichigo would understand that we shouldn't be doing this," she said curtly. "That's all that concerns me right now."

"And yet you're helping him. If you feel so strongly about this, then why aren't you telling your superiors about his behavior? Why haven't you taken the situation into your own hands if you think he's going the wrong way?"

Rukia turned away from him sharply, grunting in a somewhat unladylike manner. "That…is none of your business."

Shrugging, Urahara bent down to check on the unconscious Ishida before standing back up, brushing nonexistent dust from his green overcoat. "Yes, I suppose that's true. But I don't think you'll be of much help to Ichigo-kun if you're not able to answer that question for yourself."

Rukia's response was to walk back into the storefront, reaching into her robes for her Soul Phone. Urahara watched her go, and then smiled sadly, shaking his head.

"Thank goodness they haven't bred old-fashioned decency out of these kids' heads yet," the shopkeeper said to himself. "I hate to imagine how this would've turned out if she wasn't willing to support him. Friends fighting over what's right never turns out well."

A sudden chill filled the air, but Urahara didn't flinch; he knew the feeling for what it was, and knew it well.

The bait had taken effect.

The Hollows were coming.

Outside, something odd—by all appearances, a sort of wrinkle in the sky, however small—had begun to form, distorting the clouds. Ichigo and Rukia, outside of Urahara's shop, looked up to see it briefly, then focused their attention on the Hollows they could feel popping up all over town.

"All right, here's the plan," Ichigo said, looking further south. "I'm going to clear the path where Karin's likely to be heading home, and then I'll go from there. You call in the backup and start clearing out Hollows here, and then head back up north to where my school is. One of my friends is likely to be there."

"You can't let her see you, you realize that," Rukia replied, folding her arms. "If you do then you're going to make this situation even worse than it is already."

Ichigo rolled his eyes and snorted disdainfully. "Worse than Hollows swarming all over my goddamn hometown, on my birthday of all days, ready to snack on anyone that can even partially see them? I doubt that."

Though he said it without any real venom, the reminder that he had a very personal stake in this entire affair gave Rukia pause, and she looked down, trying to hide the guilt scrawled all over her face. Then, she snapped her head up sharp as a whip and stared at him incredulously. "It's your birthday today?"

"Yep, that's right. Sixteen years ago on this exact day, I was brought kicking and screaming into this world," Ichigo said, putting on pretentiously fake airs of importance and pride. "Gotta say, though, Ishida picked a really shitty present to give me."

Despite the situation, Rukia managed to smile at Ichigo's candor, though only a little bit. "I agree."

At the sight of Rukia's somewhat newfound good spirits, Ichigo grinned. "That's better. Now come on. We've got some Hollows to deal with."

Rukia nodded once and began to dial numbers on her phone. Ichigo drew Zangetsu and leapt to the rooftops to get a high vantage point on any Hollows that would be attempting to get in his way.

However, the battles that he'd been hoping to stop were, without his knowledge, already taking place.

* * *

**4:15 PM**

**Karakura****Town, Kinogaya**

On most days, Karin Kurosaki could run rings around her friends when it came to soccer. Due in no small part to these almost-daily meetings in an abandoned lot in Karakura's southeastern-most district, Kinogaya, and intense bouts of practice on her own time, she'd become a deadly player when she was in the right frame of mind, scoring kicks strong enough to knock goalies down.

Today was not one of those days—at least, not any more.

For the last fifteen minutes, Karin had been feeling a persistent, nagging _itch_ at the back of her skull, pulling her concentration off of her kicks and the game in general. She'd already bounced the ball off a few hapless skulls in her distracted state of mind, and after the fifth one, she threw up her hands and walked off the field, her frustrated pout and angry, Ichigo-like glare hidden beneath her hat.

"I'm feeling sick. I'm going home," she announced. "Sorry."

As she walked away, her friends and teammates gathered together, as if they were all going to follow her, but they were stopped when Kai Kondo moved ahead of them and put up a single hand, not looking back to see their response. His brown eyes narrowed slightly, but he seemed pretty calm, and not at all surprised by Karin's outburst.

"Let me handle Kurosaki, guys. If it's any of you she'll just get even testier and not want to play anymore."

Everyone looked at one another and started whispering, but eventually, they all nodded in agreement, and Kai smiled briefly before running to catch up with Karin.

"Go away, Kai," Karin said aloud, not bothering to face her soccer rival. She knew it was him mostly by his footsteps—whether he was pounding down the field or just walking along, his strides were strong and measured. "I told you I don't feel well. I'm not coming back."

"I know," Kai said, continuing to walk until he was beside Karin. Then, he got ahead of her and cut her off; she started to glare at him, but stopped when she saw a heavy sobriety in his eyes that had never been there before.

"I feel it too, and I know what's causing it. You're sort of doing the right thing by going off alone, but it's still too dangerous regardless. Let me come with you, walk you back to your place at least."

Karin's scowl lessened slightly, but only because of how uncharacteristically serious he was being. "What do you mean, _it's dangerous_? And what exactly would you plan to do about it anyway?"

Kai grunt-growled in frustration; it was a sound that Karin had never heard from him or anyone before. "Look, I don't have time to explain, Karin. Suffice it to say that I can see ghosts too and—"

The sounds of footfalls on the nearby staircase in front of them stopped Kai from continuing the conversation. Both he and Karin turned just in time to see Yasutora Sado, dressed in a floral print shirt and sweating profusely, make his way to the top of the steps, towering above them both. His shaggy hair still covered one of his eyes, but there was no doubt in Kai's mind that there was a lot of distress in Chad's expression.

"Huh? Aren't you Ichi-nii's friend with the parakeet?" Karin asked. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

Kai's eyes widened suddenly, and so too did Chad's single visible one. Karin had no time to react before Chad rushed forward and pulled her out of the way. Moments later, in the spot where Chad had been standing, a large thudding sound and a cloud of dust went up. Kai, who had managed to duck around Chad's lightning-fast grab at him, grimaced in annoyance and absently smacked the sides of his legs once or twice. He hadn't been hurt, but it was something of a habit for him, especially when he was ready to get serious.

"I hate Hollows so much," the boy said, waving away what dust attempted to fly up his nostrils as he waited for the cloud to clear. He could sense the monster in question, and it hadn't moved yet, for whatever reason.

He didn't like that.

Soon enough, the spirit-monster swung its huge arms, and the dust cleared away. Kai stared the gray-bodied Hollow straight in its pale mask, noting the yellow, pinched eyes, fat cheeks, and swirls of the mask made it vaguely resemble a guardian lion. It was a thickly muscled Hollow, as well, with its hole at the center of its chest.

From where Karin and Chad were crouched, just behind Kai, the girl looked up in shock and fear, her face paling rapidly. She too could see the Hollow, and against her will memories of facing a similar creature well over a month ago, during the yearly trip to her mother's grave, flooded her mind.

"What is that thing?" she whispered, and Chad grunted in surprise, looking down at her. "It's just like before. When I tried to talk to that girl…."

"You can see it?" he asked.

Karin swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded, then gasped. "Kai! Kai, what are you doing? Run!"

Chad turned to see what she was talking about, and felt his blood run cold. The brown-haired boy that had been with her was running straight at the…blur that Chad saw the Hollow as.

Better described, the boy was running at the blur one moment, and then he was jumping high, much higher than any person, let alone anyone Kai's age, could have jumped without having spring-loaded shoes or something else of equal ludicrousness.

With a loud shout, Kai then dropped the back of his right heel right onto the Hollow's head, sending it face forward towards the ground. As Kai landed nonchalantly and brushed a bit of dirt off his nose, Karin gaped blankly at the sight, while Chad's eyebrow rose in mild confusion.

_So he can see it too. But how did he…?_

"Kai, what did you just do?" the girl demanded, ducking under Chad to move towards her soccer rival and schoolmate.

"It's a long story," Kai replied, shaking his head. He then sensed a spike of Hollow-like Spiritual Energy and whirled around towards the Hollow, and quickly held up a hand towards Karin. "No, stay back! This idiot's not done yet!"

True to Kai's words, the Hollow got right back up, growling lowly as it rounded on Kai, Chad, and Karin. Mentally, Kai put together strings of swears that would have made a sailor weep in sorrow.

_In this body…I'm no good,_ he thought to himself as the Hollow growled; its mask's small, narrow teeth were bared for the world to see. _If only I could get back to the shop, then I could…._

Its arm swung at him, and he grunted as he kicked it away, only for the other one to close around him from behind. He had no air left in his lungs to scream, as it squeezed around him and then tossed him into the ground like so much trash.

Karin screamed in fright, babbling out Kai's name, while Chad quickly rushed forward to where Kai was now lying unconscious. From the corner of his eye, Chad saw the blur move in his direction, and heard Karin shout out a warning in-between her incoherent sobbing and wailing, but paid her voice no mind.

The words of an old man, an old man that he'd loved and cared for dearly, echoed in Chad's mind as he knelt down behind the unconscious Kai, picked the smaller boy up, and began to run from the Hollow, to wherever he could go.

"_You are strong, Yasutora."_

"Mister!" Karin yelled. "On your right! He's going to hit you on your right!"

Chad grunted and turned, and just barely missed being hit once more. _I can't run forever_, he thought to himself, panting as he cast an eye on the semi-motionless blur behind him. _But I have no way of seeing it better. Ichigo's sister can, but there's no way I'm going to bring her close to that thing._

He briefly adjusted Kai's unconscious body, silently grateful that the boy was at least still breathing, however labored the breathing was. After a moment, Chad laid Kai down as gently as he could and then turned to fully face the blur.

His right fist clenched, and in his mind's eye, Chad was young again, a scrawny, but still growing boy. A boy that still had power in his fists, and wasn't afraid to use them as he saw fit.

He remembered standing in a dinky, dirty back alley, filled with the smell of blood and littered with trash. He remembered tanned, wrinkled, gnarled, and gentle hands covering his own, then moving to his shoulders. He remembered the strong, easy smile, the jauntily cocked cigar beneath the thick, graying mustache.

"_What God gave you, Yasutora, are things others would kill for—a healthy body, a keen mind. Because of that, there are people might be jealous of you or fear you because of how different those things make you. And that is why you cannot waste those gifts on simple violence. They are gifts. They can do something great, something aside from causing harm. You must find out what that thing is, Yasutora, and embrace it with these two hands."_

Chad heard a low rumbling, which drew him out of his thoughts. The blur was in front of him now, and was—possibly?—preparing to charge. Chad briefly looked down at the unconscious boy behind him, and then at Karin, only a few feet away and still horrified, her expression blank, stark, and fearful.

_Abuelo, I understand you now. I know what I can do with these fists._

The blur, in Chad's eyes, slowly became a color, a dark gray. Roaring a challenge, he rushed forward, sprinting at his newly visible enemy before it could attack him, Karin, or Kai. Something within him was building up inside of him, pushing him on and on, and the dark gray began to resolve itself even further.

_With this body of mine…I have to protect people. I have to fight for those that can't fight for themselves._

His right arm began to thrum and shake, but he barely noticed it. Neither did he register that the blur had become a fully-formed thing, complete with white mask and a human-like body.

Instead, he sidestepped the next attack that it threw at him, a massive punch. He leapt up, drawing his right hand back as he ascended, and then slammed it into the beast's face with all of his strength.

In that moment, before everything exploded in a torrent of blue-white, Chad could have sworn that his arm was turning black.

* * *

When the dust cleared, or at least started to clear, Karin could make out the dark, tall shape of someone standing in the middle of the cloud. At first, her fear kept her from recognizing the figure in question, but soon enough she realized that while the shadow was tall, it wasn't anywhere near the height of the monster she'd just seen Chad take on.

"Mister? Are you alive in there?" Karin finally managed to call out, her voice cracking.

Silence was the only response she got, at least until the cloud finally passed and the indistinct figure was revealed to be none other than Yasutora Sado, unharmed. In front of him laid the headless body of the monster that had just been threatening all three of them.

And his right arm…his right arm had _changed_.

It was mostly black, with a single maroon, white-lined stripe running down the middle from the top to the bottom. Two square flanges rose up from his shoulder, with the gap between said flanges covered by the maroon stripe. The width of said stripe was enough to cover his middle and pointer fingers. It looked like there were two small spikes at his wrist, one on each side, but Karin couldn't quite tell from where she stood.

Chad simply stared down at his transformed limb, then at the dead Hollow, before he looked over to Karin and flashed a thumbs-up with his unchanged left arm. Despite herself, the girl groaned and shook her head, appearing disgusted, but sobered up when she saw Kai still lying motionless on the ground nearby.

"Oh, no. I've got to get him to the clinic," she whispered. Before she could think of how she'd get that done, though, the boy grunted loudly and got to his feet, blinking stars rapidly.

"I hate Hollows," Kai muttered, brushing dirt out of his hair. "Damn it."

Finally willing her muscles to move, Karin got up and ran over to her rival. "Kai? You're all right?"

Kai nodded, checking his elbows and knees for scrapes; finding none, he grinned. "Just a bit of a headache, but nothing old Urahara wouldn't be able to fix. I'm fine."

"I still think you should come by the clinic," Karin said, trying and failing to hide the worried note in her voice. "That monster threw you against the ground."

"I'm fine, Karin," Kai said again, though this time his voice was noticeably more stern, as if trying to cow her into letting it go. "More importantly, if we travel in a group, those Hollows will track us down that much faster, and with that big guy there as our only protection, we won't get far." He stopped speaking after that, suddenly realizing what he was implying, and turned to Chad quickly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that the way it sounded, I just meant that there might be more and that—"

Chad eyed Kai calmly, but cautiously. The boy seemed to know quite a lot about the 'Hollow', and had been able to see it just as clearly as Karin did and as he did now. In Chad's mind, that meant one thing: whoever taught the boy about the monsters might be able to help Chad figure out just what was happening to him.

"It's all right," Chad said. "Listen. I want to know more about these…Hollow things. Who told you about it?"

Kai blinked, not expecting the question, but recovered quickly enough. "That'd be Urahara. I live with him at his shop in Mitsumiya."

"Can you take me there if I go with you?"

Kai's eyes darted to Chad's arm, then back to his face. "Sure. I'm guessing you wanna know what's going on, huh? I don't blame you."

"I'm coming with you," Karin said, scowling at being ignored. "I've seen one of these things before." What she didn't say was that she also remembered, however dimly, a familiar flash of strawberry-blonde hair floating above her, being cradled in warm, strong hands, the last time she'd seen one.

She knew no one else with that hair and those hands. No one but her brother.

Kai pursed his lips and looked away. "Karin. I…no, I can't let you. You shouldn't get any more involved in this."

Big mistake.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Karin snapped, stabbing a finger into his chest. "How much more involved can I get? I can see these things and I've been attacked by them twice! Don't you think I ought to know what's going on?"

Kai began to sweat, just a bit. "Well, um, that's—"

Karin adjusted her hat to shadow more of her face and put on her best Ichigo glare. "Kaitou Kondo. You're going to take me with you. **Period.**"

Finally, Kai let out a strangled groan and threw his hands up. "Fine, fine, you can come too." He sighed, pressed a hand to his face, and rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. "But don't blame me if you don't like what you hear."

Chad simply looked between the two children, not quite sure what to say. At length, the massive high school student simply looked to the north, where Mitsumiya was.

"If we're going, we should go now."

_I've got a bad feeling. This isn't over yet._

_Abuelo…give me the strength to keep these two safe a little longer._

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Argh, I wanted to get this one out earlier but I was getting blocked up in the middle due to how many changes I had to take into account. Plus, I actually hadn't noticed that it was Ichigo's birthday when I moved the Hollow Hunt to the July 15 date, and that threw me off a bit. Still, I like where it's going now, and I'm still on track with my plan. _

_I uploaded a little fix to Lesson 12, since my pronoun habit sort of mixed things up in one paragraph and there were some other things I hadn't caught. Times like this make me think about picking up a beta reader._

_The Karin thing up there might shock a few people, but to be honest, I hadn't planned on it initially. However, it's one of those "many changes I had to take into account". How this changes things? Well…your guess might be as good as mine. *smile*_

_The particularly sharp-eyed or sharp-minded will almost undoubtedly notice something else in this part that I've been hinting at since the Don Kanonji thing. If you didn't catch it, don't worry. It'll come up again at another point in time._

_Cultural Notes and Translations: None this time._

_Student Review Corner:_

_Isis36 (Lesson 12): To tackle the questions/concerns I can answer—Soifon was chosen as his Flash Step instructor for a little bit of both reasons, yes. As for Ichigo's slower growth, part of it is because of how the training is carried out. He only gets expert instruction two days a week—the rest of the time, he's practicing on his own or with someone that's good but not great at it. The other part is me trying to pace his growth a little bit—I've said in response to another review that I don't want to make him an instant expert, his canonical growth rate notwithstanding, and that still stands._

_Moonphase95 (Lesson 12): Sorry, but that's a secret~ If you want to know, you'll have to keep reading._

_BrazeRancor (Lesson 12): I will admit that I have a fondness for Soifon as a character in general (her abilities are really cool to me), and I will also admit that my fondness is going to lead to me trying to develop her character a bit more. It's already been proven that she's capable of being less surly if she really wants to be, so I figured I'd try it._

_Lesson 14 will be started eventually, and I'm excited to finally reach it. The entire Hollow hunt will hopefully end by the time Lesson 15 is finished, but I make no promises._

_Until next class, everybody._

_~ZS_


	14. Lesson 14: Infectious Diseases 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 14: Infectious Diseases 101, or Fight the Flu Fire_

* * *

**Thursday, July 15, 4:16 PM**

**Karakura Town, Mitsumiya**

On the roof of the Urahara Shop, Rukia sighed as she hung up her Soul Phone and switched it over to the tracking function. When she'd made the call to the emergency mobilization line, they'd already seen the obscene amount of Hollows surging into Karakura, and so in the end her call had simply been confirmation.

In less than two or three minutes, a Fifth Division squad of about ten Reapers, led by Lieutenant Hinamori, and a Fourth Division medical team, would be in Karakura Town, clearing out Hollows in the western and northwestern districts. That left the southern and eastern part of Karakura to her and Ichigo, for the most part.

_I can only hope that we can act quickly enough to spare the innocent from this madness,_ she thought, absently scanning her phone for Hollows in the area. _That foolish Quincy…after all of this, there's no way he won't get out of this without some sort of punishment._ Her face soured into a grimace._ Not unless Ichigo tries to spare him again._

She saw a red dot on her phone not more than a few yards from her position. With her train of thought broken, she looked up, sensing the Hollow almost immediately and sending off a White Lightning spell in its direction as soon as she made visual contact with it. Sure enough, the Kidou hit the froglike Hollow right in the foreleg, causing it to stumble; Sode no Shirayuki flashed down on the monster almost immediately afterwards, and a cloud of white particles floated through the air as Rukia flicked off her zanpakutou and sheathed it.

_No, enough is enough. No matter what argument Ichigo makes, I will turn Ishida over to Soul Society. There's no way he can be allowed to run rampant with his powers if he's going to be this irresponsible with them. _She sighed. _I would rather not be responsible for his death, but I see no other options._

She briefly checked her phone again, and headed north. A few Hollows had massed and were making their way to that part of Mitsumiya, bordering on the Gakuenchou district. There was no telling which way they were planning on going from there, but Rukia figured that she would do better to take them all down as quickly as possible.

At about the same time, a little farther northwest from where Rukia was headed, another Hollow was slowly making its way to a nearly-empty Karakura High School, where only a few students that had after-school activities were staying.

Three of those students happened to be Tatsuki Arisawa, Chizuru Honshou, and Orihime Inoue; the first two were stuck cleaning up the glass shards of a window that the Judo Club had broken during practice—the reasoning of the club members was that the girls had put up the most fuss, so they were the ones that had to clean it up. Naturally, this line of "thought" pissed Tatsuki off severely, but she didn't feel like getting into a fight with the idiot boys over it (mostly because she'd win and embarrass the crap out of them), so she simply let it go and got to cleaning.

The only thing more annoying than that, as far as Tatsuki was concerned, was the two ghosts flying overhead, making out and hugging each other. They'd been hanging around for the better part of the day, and seemed to gravitate near her specifically, probably because she could see them.

_It all started after Don Kanonji's show_, Tatsuki thought to herself, casting a spare glare at the ghost couple. _Ever since then…these spirits have been getting clearer and clearer. Now I see them as plain as day. But, why can I see them? What caused this to happen? _Grunting in annoyance, she got up and dumped the shards from the dustpan she was holding into a nearby garbage can, and then brushed off the knees of her karate uniform. "Troublesome."

"I know, right?" Chizuru said. "Boys are so stupid." She cast a sly glance at Orihime, who was standing in the middle of the courtyard and staring off into space, and smiled lecherously. "My Hime would never do something so silly, though."

Tatsuki's fist slammed into the back of Chizuru's head, giving the redhead lesbian a nice, blurry view of the ground through her glasses. "Cut that out, you perverted idiot!"

Chizuru snapped her head back up and smiled slyly at Tatsuki, but a clearly trigger-happy light was in her eyes. "Oh-ho, is that how you want to be, Tatsuki? I should warn you, I'm tougher than I look!"

It was at that moment that Orihime walked over to them, draping one arm over each of their shoulders, and smiled broadly. "Hey, guys. We're pretty much done here, right? Let's go to my place and go watch a show together. There's something good on today."

Tatsuki and Chizuru looked at each other once more, with puzzlement instead of hostility, and then shrugged.

"Um, sure…." Tatsuki said. "Just let me change out of my karate clothes first, OK, Orihime? Promise, I'll be right back."

With that, she dashed across the yard to the gym and went into the entrance to the girl's locker room, leaving Orihime and Chizuru behind. Orihime had almost yelled for Tatsuki to stop, as the gym was the last place Tatsuki wanted to be, but stopped when she briefly flicked her eyes up to the top of the gym.

The _thing_ she'd been looking at on the roof of the building—which only she had seen, from what she could tell— was gone.

A single bead of sweat trickled from the back of her head and down the curve of her spine.

_No._

"**So you did see me."**

Very slowly, very carefully as to not make Chizuru wonder, Orihime looked back and upwards, turning to face the echoing, female voice she'd just heard.

The _thing_ was indeed above her. Its white, jellyfish-shaped face had numerous tentacles dangling from the bottom, and a number of light purple tentacles were behind it, about twelve or so. Above its heart-shaped eyes were three semi-circles of bumps, and its teeth were set in a hard-faced, garish grin.

Unfortunately, Orihime had indeed attracted Chizuru's attention, and the redhead looked up as well, seeing nothing where Orihime was looking. "Huh? What's up, Hime? Do you see something?"

Orihime's widened eyes barely turned to Chizuru's face before the bumps on the jellyfish-monster's face swelled up and fired outwards. A number of the greenish projectiles shattered the school windows, and Orihime gave out a loud cry and fell to the ground as the windows of the buildings around them shattered.

When the noise died down, Orihime lowered her arms from in front of her face and looked around fearfully. To her shock, Chizuru was lying on the ground with a grievous wound on her left shoulder. Quickly, Orihime went over to Chizuru and grasped the girl's left hand.

"Chizuru-chan! Are you all right, Chizuru-chan?"

The redhead beamed broadly and got to her knees, shrugging her wounded shoulder with only a wince. "Oh, Hime. It stings a little bit, but I'm OK." She frowned at the sight of tears in Orihime's eyes. "Now, now, as cute as you look that way, you don't need to start crying. I'm fine, honestly." To demonstrate the point, she flexed and waved her left arm smoothly, and then rubbed her shoulder again as she put her hand on Orihime's shoulder. "Still, what just happened? I—"

The veins in her hand suddenly bulged, and Orihime had time to let out half a scream before Chizuru's hand slipped off her shoulder and around her throat, squeezing with all the deceptively-hidden strength that the redheaded girl possessed.

"Hime? Hime, I…my arm is…!"

The monster overhead let out a mocking laugh as it landed in the schoolyard, leering at Orihime and Chizuru. The bumps on its head that had been shot out now had holes in their place, but as Orihime watched, more bumps grew to replace them. **"It's under my control, now. You see, I find direct conflict so demeaning. So instead of fighting my own battles, I let my little seedlings do the work for me."**

A green, oblong bulb blossomed out of Chizuru's shoulder as the thing spoke, and the veins along her biceps also began to swell up, causing her to scream in horror and pain. "It hurts! Hime, it hurts!"

Orihime's eyes began to tear up, and she could do little more than stare into Chizuru's tear-streaked face until she noticed a number of male and female figures pouring out of the doors and broken windows of the school—figures dressed in the school uniform. "No," she whispered, her voice choked by Chizuru's hand. "Them, too? How could you?"

"**Really, it doesn't matter to me," **the monster said idly. **"The 'how' of things, that is. All that I know is that I like to see my victims squirm. Cry. Experience terror that they never have before. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside." **It laughed, and Orihime was shaken with revulsion down to her very core. **"Now, show me. Show me that fright! Scream! Scream! Scream!"**

Chizuru's arm suddenly punched Orihime in the face, and the swarm of students surged forward to attack a now prone Orihime, grabbing her, holding her down, and tearing at her clothes. She could see nothing in their eyes, male or female—nothing but the white sclera, as if the eyes had outright rolled into the back of their heads.

"Stop! Stop!" she screamed, trying to swat at the hand of a boy that was pulling off part of her shirt; she failed to stop him, and the brooch at her neck, along with the tie, came off, as did part of her shirt and left sleeve, exposing her shoulder. Another girl lunged at her leg, trying to grasp at her skirt, and Orihime's screams became shrieks, gibbering and barely comprehensible amongst her sobs. "STOP!"

Then, footsteps echoed loudly throughout the yard, and Tatsuki's enraged voice bellowed out, shaking even the possessed students to their core.

"HEY, YOU BASTARDS! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO HER?"

And with that, Japan's number 2 girl in martial arts took a running jump and kicked out, knocking one of Orihime's assailants a good five feet clear. From there, Tatsuki's fists took care of the rest, leaving a pile of insensate bodies all around her and Orihime. With all the enemies down, Tatsuki pulled Orihime to her feet, briefly inspecting the strawberry-blonde girl.

"You all right, Orihime?" Tatsuki asked. Her voice was laced with both concern and extreme rage, with a lot more of the former coming through. "I'm sorry. I should have noticed that thing earlier. That's why you wanted to go home, right? To get away from it."

"You can see it too?" Orihime said. Her right hand clutched at the spot where her clothes had been torn away, instinctively covering herself.

Tatsuki's eyes narrowed in hatred, and for a minute, Orihime could have sworn that Tatsuki's pupils had contracted into catlike slits in her blue irises. "No, not really. It's just a big blur to me, but I can get a rough idea of where it is." She then pointed directly at the monster with her right hand and turned her head to direct her full-blown stare directly at it. A confident, almost bloodthirsty grin worked its way across her face, exposing her teeth.

"Get ready, you piece of shit," Tatsuki whispered, her hand clenching into a fist. "I'm going to break you in half! Because no one—and I mean no one—makes Orihime cry in front of me!"

In response, more of the students that had been possessed by the monster's seeds surged forward, and Tatsuki let out a fevered roar as she charged straight at them, knocking the first one down with a powerful uppercut. From there, it might as well have been called a massacre, as any one of them that got within three feet of Orihime or Tatsuki got knocked down hard.

In just under ten seconds, the battlefield, such as it was, was littered with unconscious, and possessed bodies. The summer heat shone down in full force, but it barely fazed a still-grinning Tatsuki, who slammed her right fist into her hand, cracked her knuckles, and tensed up to charge at the blur only a few feet away from her.

"Now for you," Tatsuki said, the veins on her clenched fists standing up.

The monster's teeth opened slightly, allowing its pointed tongue to slip out and loll on the ground. **"I don't think so, actually,"** it replied. **"Boys and girls, could you do Mother a favor and hold her for me?"**

At that point, some of the once-felled zombies got up and rushed Tatsuki from behind. With a snarl, Tatsuki turned to punch them out, but faltered when she saw Chizuru's face, tear-streaked and frightened, staring right back at her.

"Run. Tatsuki, run."

And then Chizuru's fist slammed into Tatsuki's stomach, stunning her.

The boys grabbed Tatsuki and turned her towards the monster.

One of the bulbs swelled up again.

Pain blossomed in Tatsuki's left shoulder.

Orihime screamed, even when more boys came up from behind and muffled her.

Tatsuki bit off a violent string of curses and slumped down in her captors' arms, hissing in agony.

"**Thank you, children,"** the monster said, its tongue twitching. **"Now, you there, miss interloper. What shall we do with you? As soon as that seedling sprouts, your body will be mine and we'll have a great many options for your punishment. Maybe the ****boys should have a bit of fun with you, then the girls. Or maybe we'll strip you and have you hang from the roof."**

Orihime wriggled valiantly against her captors, but to no avail; the monster noticed this, and with a lazy wave of a tentacle, it caused one of the boys to slam Orihime's head down against the ground.

"**Now, what was I saying…? Hmm. Ah, yes, your punishment. It seems my mind is too pure and chaste to come up with something suitable."**

"That's a load of bullshit," Tatsuki yelled in reply. It took a bit of straining, but she managed to get to her feet somewhat, though with one of her arms out of her control she couldn't do much with it. "You, chaste? I think there's more chance of me being the Prime Minister." Her glare tightened, and her eyes seemed to gain a reddish tint, becoming purple, while her pupils narrowed into slits briefly before turning back to normal. "Now you let Orihime go before I rip you apart!"

The monster simply laughed, and drew close enough to Tatsuki that it could caress her face with one of its face tentacles. **"You shouldn't talk to your new mother like that, child. Or I may ground you. Forever."**

With her arms and legs restrained, Tatsuki could do nothing to stop the cold, almost slimy appendage from touching her.

She could, however, take violent exception to the cold, almost slimy appendage that was touching her, and so she did.

By biting into it like a wild animal.

The monster shrieked as Tatsuki's needle-like canines pierced the tentacle, and a yellow light shined in the eyeholes of its face. **"Let go! You brat! Let go!"**

Blows from the other tentacles rained down on Tatsuki's head, and Orihime screamed her friend's name as Tatsuki was buffeted around by the monster. Yet, Tatsuki's teeth stayed clamped right down. Her eyes continued to stare wrathfully at the monster, even though her swimming vision barely allowed her to see that its form was becoming clearer to her.

Then, a ringing pain shot into her head, just above her left eye, and she instinctively closed it, letting her head snap back.

"**I've had enough of you! Just die!"**

More pains shot into her legs and her side, and with her still-functioning eye, Tatsuki could at last see the monster in all of its glory. She could also see that a few of the bumps were gone, and deduced from what it said earlier that she'd just been hit with the seeds from said bumps.

Suddenly, everything went numb, and she fell, hitting the ground. Something throbbed in her forehead, where one of the seeds must have struck, and she felt some sort of tendrils crawling through her skin, racing down her face. More throbbing started in her shoulder and thigh, and tendrils ran up her arms, her legs, everywhere.

Orihime was running towards her, crying, and all Tatsuki could do was stare at Orihime approaching.

_Don't cry, Orihime. Please, don't cry._

Tatsuki's right hand twitched upwards to reach out towards Orihime, and to both girls' surprise, it seemed that Tatsuki's hand, and her forearm, up to the elbow, was covered in hard blue scales, and her fingertips had become more like a lizard's sharp, raked claws.

That sight distracted Orihime long enough for Tatsuki's foot to go crashing into her stomach with the force of a sledgehammer.

As the strawberry-blonde girl buckled over and vomited from the force of the blow, Tatsuki's body stood up, looming over Orihime menacingly.

_No, please. Don't cry, Orihime. I…._

Another kick to Orihime's shoulder sent her tumbling away. Tatsuki felt her body plod forward, slowly, relentlessly pursuing her best friend in the world.

Her best friend, who had a vomit-stained hand to her mouth, who was sobbing, who looked as if death incarnate was stalking her, who was clutching her stomach as if a hole had been blown through it…

_Just don't…just don't cry. Orihime…_

_Just don't cry._

Tatsuki felt two warm tracks slide down her face. It took her some time to recognize the feeling through the pain in her body, but she eventually knew that they were tears.

_Orihime. If you cry…then all those years I spent protecting you…protecting you so that you could smile and not cry…._

As Tatsuki's body bent down, Orihime's left hand came up and rested gently on the left side of Tatsuki's face. Tatsuki's scale-covered right hand rested on the crook of Orihime's arm, but gently, and Tatsuki realized that she had just the smallest measure of control back again.

"Ever since we've met, you've stood up for me, Tatsuki," Orihime said, smiling. She'd wiped away the spittle on her face and hands as best she could, but the dirt on her face from when she'd hit the ground was too difficult to get rid of. "Did you know? You were the only person aside from my brother to do that for me." Absently, she stroked her hair with her free hand, and then nodded, her smile becoming even more resolute as her brows hardened. "Because of you, this hair that my brother cherished can stay just the way it is—no one can cut it again. Because of you, I'm not lonely anymore. So you can't cry either, not this time. Because, the same way that you stood up and protected me, I'll stand up and protect you."

Tatsuki's left hand jerkily rose upwards, and it was clearly in the same scaly condition as her right hand. Slowly, it slid between Orihime's hand and Tatsuki's face, and then grasped Orihime's hand tightly, while Tatsuki managed to grin in response.

"Deal," Tatsuki said, her voice croaking but strong.

It was then that Orihime's two six-petal hairpins, gleaming crystal-light blue in the sunlight, began to glow, and a violent gust blew through the schoolyard. From where it stood, the monster watched Orihime and Tatsuki disappear behind a whirling tempest. **"What is—?" **

Another gust blew by, and the monster shuddered in agony as one of its larger face tentacles, at the side of its face, was cut clean off, leaving a bleeding stump in its place.

"**GYAAH!"**

As the monster reeled back, it saw a gleaming light circle from behind her and take its place amongst five other lights that were floating near where Orihime was standing. The cyclone around Orihime gradually died down, and the girl spoke in firm, clear tones as she came back into view.

"Tatsuki-chan said to you earlier that no one is allowed to make me cry in front of her," Orihime said, her hair blowing in the breeze. Tatsuki knelt behind her, barely conscious. The dark-haired girl's seed-infected arm hung limply as she stared up at Orihime's back with her single good eye. "That's true. It's been true for the last three years. But the reverse is true too. No one is allowed to make Tatsuki-chan cry in front of me! And those who hurt her will never be forgiven!"

The six lights then faded, revealing themselves to be small, winged things. From high up, they appeared to be like birds, but when they clustered in front of Orihime, she could see them as something like a bug's exoskeleton. This thought was somewhat confirmed when human figures crawled out from beneath the "shells", revealing an assorted collection of human-looking, fairy-like people.

One, a blonde with a topknot and a red, gold-lined robe, raised a hand in greeting, smiling with closed eyes. Light-green appendages, which Orihime recognized as the 'wings' of the shell he (or was it she? The figure was awfully feminine) had been flying in, floated just behind him. His (or her?) feet, Orihime noticed, were like a dinosaur's, in a way; black and thin, with two long, square-tipped toes and a shorter matching toe in the back. "Hello, Orihime. I'm Shun'ou."

Eyes wide, Orihime shook her head and pinched her arm, staring at him. "A talking midget girl? What's going on here!"

"I'm not a girl, Orihime," Shun'ou said, shaking his head. "And I'm not a midget either." He gestured to the other five fairies that accompanied him; with the exception of one black-haired one with crossed arms and a tan scarf covering his face and upper shoulders, they all smiled at her. "We are the Shun Shun Rikka. Because of your friend Ichigo, we, the manifestation of your inner spirit, were allowed to take form."

Orihime blinked, and shook her head again. "Kurosaki-kun? How did he…?"

The scarf-wearing member of the group immediately charged forward, kicking Shun'ou in the head; his feet were exactly like Shun'ou's. Orihime then noticed that the black-haired fairy was wearing a dark jumpsuit, with his bat-like 'wings' extending from his hips and a red stripe running down the center of his body, arms, and wings.

"None of that crap's important, you idiot topknot captain! Did you forget that we're in the middle of a goddamn battlefield?" the black-haired fairy yelled.

"No, Tsubaki, I didn't," Shun'ou said, rubbing the new lump on his head. "But Orihime has had a very long day, and a little explanation never hurt anyone."

The monster began to rumble ominously, and three of the spirits moved forward, a bit farther away from Orihime. One was a tall, brawny man, wearing a white faceplate decorated with branches and flowers over his mouth. He was clad in a brown, long sleeved shirt and khaki pants; except for a braid atop his head, he was entirely bald. The second was a thin, totally bald man with a black-striped purple bodysuit, pointy ears and a gray, purple-lensed eyepatch that extended beyond the top of his head and bottom of his face, forming a scraggly horn at the top. The last one was a pink-haired girl in a blue one-piece swimsuit with an orange collar, wearing orange goggles. Her hair was done up into three separate buns, with blue ribbons for each one, and a fringe of hair hung over the right side of her face, stopping just above her eyes Because of where they floated in front of her, Orihime saw that the thin man's 'wings' were blue and polka-dotted, the large man's were white and segmented, and the girl's, attached to the back of her forearms, were pink.

"**Whatever the hell those things are, I'll smash them to bits," **the monster rumbled as the bulges on its head began to swell. **"And you with them! Die!"**

The seeds fired rapidly, and Orihime's eyes widened, her black pupils becoming lost in a sea of brown fear. Shun'ou quickly flew to her side and poked her in the face. "It's all right, Orihime. Just say what we say, and you'll be all right." He turned to the three fairies that had flown in front of Orihime. "You three! Introduce yourselves! Orihime! Repeat their names as they say them!"

"I am Hinagiku!" the thin fairy shouted enthusiastically.

Orihime swallowed the lump in her throat. "Hinagiku…"

"I am Baigon," said the large fairy.

"Baigon…."

"And I'm Lily!" the girl said.

"Lily…."

"Santen Kesshun! I reject!" Shun'ou, Hinagiku, Baigon and Lily shouted; Orihime, too, straightened up and cried out with them, "Santen Kesshun! I reject!"

The three fairies enclosed themselves within their shells and spread into an inverted triangle formation; moments later, an orange, triangular barrier popped up, using each fairy as a corner of the triangle, and the seeds exploded harmlessly against it.

"That shield is your defense," Shun'ou said, smiling even more broadly. "And you have two more of them, as well, with different functions." He gestured to one of the other fairies, a girl with black hair in a pink, white-trimmed robe. Her hair was styled into twin tails that came over her shoulders and rested in front of her, with one scrunchie on the end of each one, and her shell was red-and-yellow, hovering over her head and body. "Ayame here, when used in combination with me, can surround an object and produce a shield that restores objects back to normal." He looked meaningfully at a panting and confused Tatsuki, and Orihime immediately understood what to do next.

"Shun'ou. Ayame."

"Souten Kisshun!" Shun'ou and Ayame said in unison, flying towards Tatsuki. "I reject!"

"Souten Kisshun. I reject!"

With Shun'ou behind Tatsuki, and Ayame in front of her, an orange bubble appeared between the two fairies, covering Tatsuki completely. As Orihime watched, the seeds embedded in Tatsuki's forehead, shoulder, and leg cracked apart and disappeared; in mere moments, Tatsuki appeared entirely unharmed, leaving Shun'ou and Ayame to fly away from her and rejoin Orihime while Tatsuki stood up. Immediately, both girls noticed that Tatsuki's hands were still scaly and clawed, and as Tatsuki looked up just a little bit at Orihime, Orihime noticed that Tatsuki's eyes had become a vibrant, distinct purple and that her pupils were definitely sharp, catlike slits. Moreover, Tatsuki's hair, while still wild and spiky in her usual style, had grown longer in the back, just past her shoulders.

"Tatsuki-chan…your eyes. They changed color, and shape. And your hands…why aren't they normal?"

"That wasn't caused by the monster, Orihime," Shun'ou said, his expression thoughtful despite his eyes still being closed. "It seems that Tatsuki-san has powers of her own that we either awakened or were awakened already."

"Powers, huh?" Tatsuki replied, flexing her hands. "Maybe that's why…I don't feel bad, being like this." She grinned, revealing that her canines had taken on an appearance similar to fangs, and focused her attention on the monster. "Sounds like I need to deliver that beating I promised!"

The black-haired male fairy—Tsubaki, Orihime recalled, floated closer to his 'mistress' and crossed his arms. At this distance, Orihime could see the purple markings beneath his eyes and the scar just above and behind his left eye. "Woman! Listen up, and listen well. I'm the last shield. My ability is to infiltrate the enemy's defenses and create a shield around myself. That shield then rejects the bonds holding the enemy together, splitting them in half. But you have to mean it! All three of your shields—that is, all of us—we are fueled by different emotions! The Santen Kesshun, your will to defend! The Souten Kisshun, your will to heal! And me, the Koten Zanshun, your will to attack!" Tsubaki's wings, which had been heretofore hidden from view, sprouted from his hips once more as he launched forward. "Now, just like the others! Do it!"

As Tsubaki flew forward, Orihime clenched her fists and gathered her resolve, staring the monster straight in the face. Tatsuki let out a powerful roar and rushed forward, much faster than Orihime had ever seen her run; she was easily matching Tsubaki's speed and not looking winded in the slightest.

"Tsubaki! Koten Zanshun! I reject!" Orihime yelled. The fierce fairy let out a war cry of his own and folded into his shell, covered in an orange aura. At the same time, Tatsuki's fists lit up with reddish-orange, flame-like energy, and she took a mighty running leap straight at the monster.

Wordlessly, the monster shot out more seeds, at both Tsubaki and Tatsuki. However, the ones aimed at the former simply split in half when they touched him, and as the seeds flew at Tatsuki, they simply broke apart when she punched them.

"**No!" **the monster shrieked, but by the time it began to move out of the way, it was too late. Tsubaki had already slammed into its forehead and passed a good distance through its body. At the same time, Tatsuki landed a fierce punch from her right hand, and somehow _knew _that the attack she was performing, as simple as it was, had a name as well.

"SENKAKEN!"

And as Tsubaki's disc-shaped shield vertically split the monster in half, the flames flowed off of Tatsuki's fist and burned the remains to ashes on the wind.

Without much effort, Tatsuki scored a three-point landing, and then immediately turned around and dashed back towards Orihime, who had fallen to her knees, panting in exhaustion. "Hey, Orihime! Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Tatsuki-chan," Orihime replied, her voice barely above a whisper as Tatsuki grasped her hand and pulled her to her feet. "I just feel…tired, all of a sudden." She smiled. "But, we really did it, didn't we? We won against that thing."

Tatsuki returned the smile, and hugged Orihime as closely to her as she could, taking care to rest her palms on Orihime's back gently; if her fingers flexed in the slightest, her new claws could have injured Orihime. "Yes, we did." Tears once again began to run down Tatsuki's cheeks. "Orihime. I'm so sorry. Can you forgive me for hurting you? That monster…whatever she, or it, or whatever it was, did to me…I couldn't control myself. Not until these scales began to grow on my hands, and even then you had to heal me for all of my control to come back."

Orihime shook her head, nestling her chin into Tatsuki's shoulder. "It's OK, Tatsuki-chan. I know you wouldn't hurt me on purpose. You never would."

The Shun Shun Rikka floated around the embracing pair, and Shun'ou spoke up again, gently. "Orihime. We're going to return for now. You should get some rest. Using all of us at the same time is draining for you."

With that, the fairies flew back together, and consolidated their shapes into Orihime's flower hairpins once more, lying on the ground just beside her. As Tatsuki released Orihime from the hug, the girl blinked in surprise, as she hadn't even noticed that her ever-present hairpieces had been disassembled during all of the fuss.

"That's where they came from," Orihime said, picking up the pins and re-clipping her hair back. "So they'll always be close to me." She smiled again, but her expression faded when she looked around at the unconscious students and the shattered glass littering the floor. "What are we going to do about all of this?"

"You two? Nothing," a man's voice replied calmly from behind the two girls. They whirled around to see who was speaking to them, and saw a pale-blond man in a green-and white hat, green jacket, and _geta,_ smiling loosely at them. "In fact, it's best that we get you two out of here. We need to talk about a friend of yours. A friend named Ichigo Kurosaki."

Tatsuki stared incredulously at the man, and then growled somewhat aggressively, moving to stand in front of Orihime. "And just who the hell are you? How do you know Ichigo?"

The man simply adjusted his hat and grinned a little more. "He's utilized my help in the past. And is currently utilizing it. A young fellow by the name of Uryuu Ishida caused a bit of a problem today, and scattered some bait that called quite a few Hollows like the one you and your friend here just dispatched. Ishida-kun is currently taking an extended…sojourn at my shop while my employees watch over him."

"Uryuu Ishida? A skinny guy with square glasses and black hair?" Tatsuki asked.

"Yes."

Orihime shook her head and stood beside Tatsuki, her face pulled into a worried frown. "Ishida-kun, too? This is so strange."

"Ah, so you're all acquainted, then. Very good. That should make things less awkward." The man waved a hand in a semi-beckoning motion. "Now, come, you two. Once we get back to my shop, I might be able to look about sending an associate or two of mine to put this place to rights. Barring that, Ichigo-kun might be able to call in a favor or two and have it taken care of. But we need to get moving now, or we'll run into the last people we need to see right now."

Orihime briefly glanced down at Chizuru, who was prone and unconscious with the other boys and girls that had been under the Hollow's control, and began to tear up slightly. She wished she knew how to call out the Rikka to heal her friend, but the mysterious sandal-hat man didn't seem willing to wait for anything.

"I'm sorry, Chizuru-chan," Orihime whispered. "I have to find out why all of this is happening. If it wasn't for that, I…I would stay. I would help you." She blinked away a tear or two. "Please forgive me."

With growing hesitance, she turned away from the unconscious bodies and followed the man out of the building, with Tatsuki hesitantly falling in step behind them. As they walked, Urahara pulled out a cell phone and opened up the text messaging program, adding Ichigo and Rukia's Soul Phone numbers to the "recipient" field before idly composing his message with one thumb.

"_I've picked up two of Ichigo's friends from school, and one of the children is en route to the shop with another one in tow. I advise that you kill whatever Hollows are nearby and come back to talk with me about our next move. Delete this message when you're done with it. _

–_Urahara"_

* * *

**4:25 PM**

**Karakura Town, Mitsumiya: Urahara Shop**

By the time Urahara, Tatsuki, and Orihime approached the Urahara Shop, Ichigo and Rukia were landing at the storefront on the tail end of a Flash Step. Orihime's expression immediately lit up at the sight of Ichigo's familiar scowl and hair, but she faltered, if only briefly, when she saw the black robes he was wearing and the sword strapped over his back.

_Something seems familiar about those clothes, _she thought to herself. _And I get the feeling that I've seen Kurosaki-kun wearing them before._

"Inoue, Tatsuki," Ichigo said, his shoulders slumping. "Damn it. I didn't want this to happen."

"It's not entirely your fault, Ichigo-kun," Urahara replied, snapping open his fan. "In truth, I was expecting something like this to happen at some point. Someone in Soul Society was negligent either with your training or your equipment when you first started training, and this is, to some extent, the result."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Rukia asked. Her voice cold and her arms were crossed. "Are you implying something, Urahara-san?"

"Now, now, Kuchiki-dono—"

"Did I not tell you to stop calling me that?"

Urahara continued fanning himself, ignoring the interruption. "—I meant no offense by anything I said. But please, I would rather explain this only once to all of you. Please, come inside, so that I can continue to keep my eye on Ishida-kun as you requested."

Sighing in annoyance, Rukia waved her hand around loosely, and Urahara took that as a sign to lead the group in. As everyone filed into the shop, Ichigo looked Tatsuki up and down, taking in the changes that his childhood friend had undergone.

"Your hair grew out, too," he said after a moment. "How did this happen?"

Tatsuki stared down at her transformed hands. "We were attacked by a Hollow. This started happening halfway through, and after Orihime healed me the rest of it came along." She clenched them into fists, surprised that she could feel the leathery texture of her palms through the parts of her fingers that weren't claw, and that her claws had both grown shorter and couldn't break her own 'skin'. "I don't know how to turn it off, though. Hopefully I can figure it out so I don't have to go home looking like this."

As they came into Urahara's sitting room, Ichigo remembered Urahara's words and scowled harder, disliking what was happening more and more. This was entirely his fault, now, and he could feel the responsibility grating on him.

"Ichigo. You're here."

Chad's deep voice broke Ichigo out of his reverie, and the Deputy Reaper looked up to see his friend kneeling around the table with a half-empty teacup nearby. To Chad's left, a still-bound Ishida shot Ichigo a dirty glare, but said nothing. Ichigo returned the glare with one of his own, but stopped when the person on Chad's right cleared her throat.

"Good to see you too, Ichi-nii," Karin remarked sarcastically, and Ichigo felt the blood drain out of his face.

"Karin! What the—how—why—"

"Sorry, Ichigo. I had to save her from one of those…Hollows," Chad said. "She insisted on following me here when I was led back."

Ichigo groaned, slapping a hand to his face and rubbing it. Karin shrugged, and said, "I'm here until I get answers, Ichi-nii. I recognize that girl you're with. She was at Don Kanonji's show, right? She was the one that beat him up. I'd recognize someone that short in those clothes anywhere."

Rukia's mouth twitched comically at the crack about her height, but said nothing. Though Karin's stubbornness frustrated him, Ichigo put aside his annoyance and sat down right next to his sister, knowing that she'd meant what she said and that there was no way to convince her otherwise. Orihime quietly took her place next to Ichigo, and Tatsuki, beside Ichigo. Rukia then sat herself across from Ichigo, while Urahara remained standing.

"Well, now that we're all here, it's time to get down to business," Urahara said. "First things first. Kuchiki-san. I assume you contacted the Reapers about this situation, yes?"

Rukia nodded. "Luckily, the Twelfth Division had already caught the massive influx of Hollow signatures converging on Karakura Town. As it was, my call was only the catalyst to mobilize an emergency response team. Because of that, they're not looking for me to give an assessment of the situation just yet—which gives us some time to figure out what we're going to do next." She then took a moment to look at Ichigo before adding, "I doubt this will be resolved without turning Uryuu Ishida in to the Soul Reapers, or without explaining what's happened to Ichigo's friends, or even without exposing you, Urahara-san. There will be far too much to account for on my part and Ichigo's, and to be completely honest…I really would prefer to not lie about it."

To no one's surprise, Ichigo bristled when his friends came into the equation. "Rukia, you're not serious. Look, at least now I can agree with you about Ishida. With what he's done…he's not getting away with it, no matter what hair-brained reason he has." Ishida snorted, and Ichigo shot him a withering glance before continuing. "Besides that, revealing that we know Urahara is going to put both of us in an even tighter spot, never mind telling them about what happened to my friends. On top of that, we'd be reneging on the deal we both made with Urahara in the first place. Does that sit well with you?"

Rukia looked away briefly, and then looked back up at Ichigo, her purple eyes firm. "No, it doesn't. But think about it, Ichigo. We've been playing with a risky hand here. If we continue to lie by omission, we're going to have the entire thing crash down around our ears. We have to come clean, or it'll be even worse. This is what you started by choosing to say nothing about Ishida to Soul Society. Now the consequences are here to meet us."

Urahara began to pace idly, fanning himself. "Yes, Kuchiki-san is correct. As unpleasant as it may be, at least part of the truth will have to come out. I've given some thought to it, and this is what we'll have to do." He cleared his throat. "Tessai! Would you kindly take Ishida-kun outside for a bit?

The large co-manager immediately came into the sitting room, slung Ishida over one shoulder, and hauled him away, ignoring the Quincy's loud protests and demands to be put down; however, with his arms still bound behind his back and legs immobile, there was nothing Ishida could do.

Once Ishida was well out of earshot, Urahara continued to pace and speak. "I will explain to the head of the emergency team that I offered my services to Ichigo-kun and Kuchiki-san, duping them into thinking that I was merely a spiritually sensitive shopkeeper with some vague affiliation to Soul Society. At the time, you took my offer at face value, and once this Hollow bait incident happened, you immediately resolved to seek me out, at least to hold Ishida-kun captive. You also brought your friends here to recuperate once you found out that they had spontaneously developed powers of their own and were attacked by Hollows. However, this entire time you knew nothing about my actual allegiances or plans." He smiled. "It's not precisely a lie but it's not precisely the truth, either. This way, though, you two will be safe from any real repercussions."

Ichigo shook his head. "And then you get thrown under the bus for us? I don't like this. What if they're still looking for you in Soul Society? Aren't you safe precisely because they knew that you weren't here? What about those kids of yours?"

"I have a contingency plan for the children, should things go completely wrong, but they may also be the key to this entire affair." Urahara said, snapping his fan shut. "But it's much like Kuchiki-san said. You tried to spare Ishida-kun from danger, and this is the result of that. Duty, Ichigo-kun, is heavier than a mountain. You neglected your duty, thinking it would spare Ishida-kun some trouble, knowing full well that said trouble could fall upon your shoulders instead. Now you have to make a choice. Will you accept what your decision has wrought and take your duty back up, or will you turn from it again?"

Ichigo's fists balled up, and he grimaced, causing Orihime to look at him sadly. Tatsuki, in contrast, scowled fiercely, as did Karin.

"You sure know how to load your words, Urahara-_san_," Tatsuki said, putting a nasty emphasis on the honorific. Her displeasure was only accentuated by the narrowing of her slitted pupils. "You're basically lambasting Ichigo for doing the right thing, but from the sound of it, if you'd stayed away from him entirely then maybe he would've turned out just fine."

"The same could be said if he'd stayed away from me," Urahara replied, calmly. "He had a choice when he met me, whether it appeared to be a choice or not. He made his choice, and this is now the only out I can offer him. At least, the only out that may not have Captain-General Yamamoto, who is a very duty-obsessed sort of fellow, bearing down on him with all the force of a raging bull."

Orihime timidly raised a hand. "I'm sorry, Urahara-san, but could you please explain to us the whole story? I'm a little bit lost right now, and I…I want to understand just what's going on here."

Urahara nodded. "Yes, that might help everyone here understand my position a bit better. You see, Ichigo-kun and Kuchiki-san are part of an organization called the Gotei 13…."

* * *

The whole story, surprisingly, took little more than five or seven minutes to tell, mostly because Urahara was so knowledgeable about Soul Society and the Soul Reapers that he knew what he could waste time explaining and what he might as well skip over.

When all was said and done, Orihime still looked somewhat discomfited, as did Karin, and Chad (as much as Chad could be discomfited, anyway). Tatsuki was still sulky, but it was clear that she was deep in thought.

"And that is why we have our problem," Urahara said. "The Central 46 more than likely saw Ichigo-kun's potential as far outweighing his crimes, and were willing to grant him leniency based on that. Or the 46 have become more liberal in the years that I've been gone from Soul Society. That does not apply to me, and so I'm likely to get into big trouble. Unless, of course, my plan works out." He turned to Rukia again. "Kuchiki-san, can you tell me who is leading the emergency team?"

"Lieutenant Momo Hinamori of the Fifth Division," Rukia said.

"When did she ascend to the post?"

Rukia pursed her lips, not wanting to divulge anything too specific. "We were in the same class at the Academy. I'm fairly certain that she got her regular post with the Fifth Division before I got mine with the Thirteenth. Perhaps, at most, she became a lieutenant two or three decades ago, but I cannot say that with certainty."

Urahara smiled again. "Fairly new to her duties, then. Perfect. And I already have it on good information that I'm not on the active deserter's list, so her chances of not knowing my exact crimes are even better. This might not work out so poorly after all."

Ichigo arched an eyebrow. "Might not?"

"I won't say anymore than that. I might jinx it."

Tessai chose that moment to walk in, head ducked. "Boss, bad news. The Air Gate has begun to converge. The Hollows are on the move, as well."

Ichigo and Rukia's phones began to buzz loudly, and the pair looked at each other before inspecting the orders they'd just received.

"Lieutenant Hinamori has confirmed that the Hollows are beginning to swarm," Rukia said slowly. "Ichigo. We have to go. If the hollows are massing, and that Air Gate—that crack in the sky, that is—is converging, then it'll be open soon, and that means only one thing."

"And what's that?" Ichigo asked.

"A Menos Grande will emerge. Lieutenant Hinamori will need everyone's help to take it down."

Ichigo stood, one hand straying to Zangetsu. "Then let's go." He looked down at his friends, his mouth pursed into a frown, and then focused on his sister, who had been quiet for so long that Ichigo knew she hadn't quite digested all of what she'd heard yet. "Karin. I know I can trust you to keep this quiet. But you have to promise me that you'll stay out of the way. Don't go anywhere until it's safe for you, OK?"

"Then win, Ichi-nii," Karin said, frowning up at him. "Don't you dare come back home unless you come back in one piece."

Ichigo simply nodded at his little sister, and together, he and Rukia made their way out of the shop. Once they were gone, Urahara looked at Tatsuki, Karin, Orihime, and Chad, his expression deadly serious.

"I want you all to come with me. There's something you'll need to see."

Hesitantly, the group did as he said, and followed Urahara outside to where Tessai was standing; Ishida sat on the ground next to Urahara's vice manager, still bound by the spells, while Kai, Jinta, and Ururu were gathered around Tessai and Ishida. Urahara then pointed upwards at the sky with his fan, and Ichigo's family and friends looked up to see the large crack/fold in the sky begin to distort as the black shapes of many, many Hollows flowed towards it.

"That is the Air Gate. From there, the Menos Grande will make its appearance, and Ichigo-kun will be fighting against it alongside the Soul Reapers. It will be huge, and likely frightening to you, but you cannot look away from it. In fact, I may have to bring you there myself, just so that you can see it."

"See what?" Karin asked, stomach turning from the suddenly heavy atmosphere.

"See the world that Ichigo-kun has entered," Urahara said, finally pocketing his fan. "See the world you have entered. See the world that has always existed alongside yours. And…see the enemies that you may one day find yourself facing."

No one noticed a small black cat slip out of the shop, and no one said anything when it perched on his shoulder.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Whoop, there it is._

_Looks like I'm still on track so far—and I was able to start the next lesson with some of the stuff I was going to add about Ishida explaining his motivations. It'll make the perfect transition into the end of this part of the story._

_Tatsuki getting powers was planned from the start, by the way. I know it shows up a lot in this particular fandom, but I admit, the idea has appeal._

_It seems that I made a boo-boo and started referring to Chad by his last name almost exclusively without really thinking about it, when in earlier chapters (3, 5, and 6) that was not the case. I've fixed it for Chapter 13 and will check to see if the error persisted in other chapters where he showed up. I'll probably take the next day or two to finally change the Kidou names that were un-translated, as well._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_Just to satisfy my usual hankering for spreading knowledge and understanding of the glorious Moon-speak, I've got the translations for Orihime's shields (for those that don't know them or would just like a reminder) and Tatsuki's attack right here._

_Shun Shun Rikka—Six Flowers of the Hibiscus Shield_

_Santen Kesshun—Three Sacred Links Shield_

_Souten Kisshun—Twin Sacred Return Shield_

_Koten Zanshun—Solitary Sacred Cutting Shield_

_Senkaken—literally "Flash Fire Fist". The character for flash is the same as the one in Flash Step, and "ka" is another reading of the character for "fire". This is Tatsuki's basic attack in her empowered form, and whatever she hits with her flaming fists is sent for a loop by the power of the blow and engulfed by the fire almost instantly. _

_Student Review Corner:_

_Ennui deMorte (Chapter 13): Well, I'm happy to see you're enjoying it. Sorry to say that this chapter didn't really focus on Karin's individual reaction to all of this nonsense, but the "aftermath" of the Hollow Hunt will take some time to slow down and get the thoughts of the major players under inspection._

_Barranca (Chapter 13): Personally, I'm of the belief, especially after re-reading the manga chapters at least ten to twelve times to get an idea of what's going on, that Ishida really believes in protecting people from Hollows, but that he let his ego, or less politely, his hurt feelings, mess everything up. Not that his beef with Soul Reapers isn't legitimate, mind you, but he's still going about things the wrong way, which the start of the next chapter should help him start to see._

_Azraelean (Chapter 13): It will be explained, in time. However, I did hint at a possible explanation as to what might have caused Chad and Orihime to develop their powers in earlier chapters (though I'm being purposely obtuse about it, because it's more fun that way). I obviously can't discuss what those hints were just yet, but it's all a matter of __reading very carefully. I promise that once the explanation is given, I'll point back to the line(s) that foreshadowed the explanation I plan to give._

_All right, that's all I've got today. But before I go, I feel it appropriate to say here and now that once First Semester is completed, I'll be attempting to compile the entire thing into a PDF for fancy formatting and easy, one-stop reading goodness. I do believe I'll be looking for a piece of fan-art to use for the cover, but I'm not sure yet. _

_Speaking of fan art, if anyone has any, you can send it to me via email, to the address zerosenfanmail(at)gmail(dot)com, or look me up on dA: zero-sennin(dot)deviantart(dot)com. Just something to consider, OK?_

_Anyway. I'll see you guys in July with the next two lessons. Hope this tides you over till then._

_~ZS_

_EDIT (7/2/11): I fixed an error regarding Hinamori's service time. Canon is still very vague as to when she actually took up the post of lieutenant, but she likely had it a lot longer than I indicated it was originally. Special thanks to __**The Sinful**__ for bringing this to my attention._


	15. Lesson 15: Team Combat Tactics 101

_Substitute__ School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 15: Team Combat Tactics 101, or Takedown the Terror_

* * *

**Saturday, July 15, 4:38 PM**

**Karakura**** Town, Mitsumiya: Outside the Urahara Shop**

In the silence that followed Urahara's grand proclamation, Orihime looked down at where Ishida sat on the ground in front of Tessai, and crouched down next to him. "Ishida-kun," she said. "We know about your history as aQuincy. We know why Soul Society wiped them out. And…we heard that you broke Hollow bait when Kuchiki-san and Kurosaki-kun ran into you today. Please. Tell us why you did it."

Ishida simply frowned, and Orihime bit her lip, eyes falling. _I want to believe that you're not a bad person, Ishida-kun._

Her mind flashed back to the schoolyard, to Tatsuki's injuries, to Chizuru choking her, to everything that she'd been through.

_But after what happened today…I have to know, why, Ishida-kun. Why you would hurt so many innocent people by being so careless. Please, tell us why, Ishida-kun._

"Why do you care?" he asked, though the question lacked any sarcastic venom. "It won't change anything."

"You put us all in danger, Ishida," Tatsuki said, glaring at him from behind Orihime while she pointed to the Air Gate in the sky. Her transformed eyes would have put a hole through Ishida's forehead if she'd had the power to do so. "Ichigo's life is on the line because he has to fix your mess. That's why we care."

Karin and Sado simply nodded their agreement with her statement; the former, with crossed arms, and the latter with a thoughtful grunt. Ishida simply looked between their faces, his own expression neutral, and then he sighed.

"I…was going to prove to him, and to all Soul Reapers, that theQuincyweren't weak," he said, his expression surprisingly remorseful. "I was going to show him that we were worth being acknowledged by the Soul Reapers as equals."

"So you put us all into danger because of some kind of pissing contest?" Tatsuki yelled, slicing the air with one scaly hand. "What the hell! You're the number-one student in the class and yet you're so goddamn dense that you would cause this kind of trouble over a grudge?"

"It was no 'pissing contest', I assure you!" Ishida retorted, his voice rising to match hers. "Nor did it have anything to do with revenge! It was for my sensei's sake! He believed that the Soul Reapers and the Quincy could work together, but the Soul Reapers ignored him, every time, because they didn't believe in theQuincy's power." His tone grew angrier, darker, by the second. "And because they didn't believe in our power, they left him to be killed by Hollows! An old man, in the twilight of his life, was slaughtered by monsters and left unaided because the Soul Reapers were too blind to see what we could do! And because…." Here, he faltered, but soon regained his composure. "…Because I, too, was too weak. I was too weak to fight alongside my sensei."

He bit off the last sentence with a cold fury in his eyes, and stared at the ground. "I had no intention of letting anyone come to any harm. No matter what, I intended to not only prove the strength of theQuincy, but to show Kurosaki and Kuchiki and all of them that I could do their job better than they could."

Karin sniffed. "Well, sorry, Ishida-san, but I think not even a big, strongQuincyguy like you could deal with all of those things." She pointed skyward to all of the gathering Hollows converging around the Air Gate, and her sardonic tones somewhat faded. "I don't even know how Ichi-nii, Kuchiki-san, and that Lieutenant Hinamori lady are going to do it, even with backup. There are so many of them."

"Most of those Hollows are fairly weak," Urahara said, watching the Air Gate. "The Menos Grande will be the biggest issue. At least, it would be much more of an issue if Ichigo-kun wasn't present."

"And why is that?" Orihime asked.

Surprisingly, it was Ishida that answered. "He's strong, Inoue-san—at least as strong as his partner, perhaps stronger, from what I could sense. If the Lieutenant is stronger still than either of them, they should be fine."

"I have no doubt that the Lieutenant is," Tessai said. "Though by how much would be difficult to say. With his Suppression Band removed, and accounting for whatever power he may have used earlier today, Kurosaki-kun's power is almost at the average level for a lieutenant's, but there is no doubt a lack of subtle control and experience that would put him on even footing with one. Kuchiki-san is a little bit lower on the power scale than him but compensates for that with experience."

Tatsuki crossed her arms. "And what about us, with powers? Where are we in comparison to him?"

Tessai let his eyes wander over Ichigo's friends, then Karin, then Ishida, and rubbed his chin, eyes well hidden by his glasses. "Ishida-kun is the closest to Kurosaki-kun's power level. You or Sado-kun would be next on the scale, being below a lieutenant's power but well on par with a single-digit seated officer in the Gotei 13, and Inoue-kun would be just behind you, maybe closer to a double-digit officer's strength. At least, that's my impression at the moment. I have no way of accounting for how Sado-kun or Inoue-kun's powers would change their parts in the dynamic."

Having heard an explanation of the rankings within the Gotei 13 from Urahara earlier, the group could appreciate just what Tessai was getting at. In every Division, there were 20 seats available, and with a few exceptions, usually limited to the single-digit seats, only one person held each seat. Moreover, these seated officers were fairly powerful in their own right, more than capable of dealing with common Hollows in the blink of an eye. For Tessai to state that more or less everyone present could take on common Hollows and win was a fairly nice compliment.

Ishida, however, seemed nonplussed, and simply focused on the Air Gate, his expression unreadable. His thoughts, however, were nowhere near as calm.

_It's true. There are so many Hollows up there. It galls me to agree with Kurosaki's sister, but…it might have truly been a task for me to keep up with all of them._

Orihime then looked away from the gate and back at Ishida. "I've been thinking, Ishida-kun. I don't think that your sensei would have wanted you to do this, especially not if he wanted Soul Reapers and Quincy to work together. He sounds like the kind of man that was more concerned about uniting people for a common goal than proving the strength of one group over another one." She shook her head. "Unless you meant to work alongside Kurosaki-kun to fight all of these Hollows, then you wouldn't be accomplishing that goal, and on top of that you'd be destroying more souls."

The statement made Ishida wince internally, not because it was harsh but because it was true. His sensei was just that kind of person. It might have been called naïveté in a lesser man, but to Ishida it had been one of the main reasons why he loved his sensei so much. However, even if he could grudgingly accept that he might have made an error in judgement, he wasn't going to let her try to use her (honestly accurate) perception of his sensei against him without responding. "What of you, Inoue-san? Can you say that your powers, or Sado-san's powers, or even Arisawa-san's powers don't do the same thing that mine do?"

The question madeOrihime,Chad, and Tatsuki stiffen considerably, as the question had been on their minds but not at the forefront, at least not until Ishida brought it up. Worse yet, his reasons for bringing it up were rather transparent.

"Not the same thing, jerk," Tatsuki said, responding for a still-quiet Orihime. "You know what your powers do, and you were gonna keep using them anyway. We don't know what ours do, we've only used them once, and we don't even know if this thing will end with us still having them or not. Not if these Soul Reaper guys are as touchy about 'spiritually-sensitive humans with powers' as Ichigo thinks they might be."

"So because you might have done less 'damage' than me, you feel that your position is more valid than mine," Ishida replied, shaking his head. "That's a bit immature of you."

That was the straw that broke Tatsuki's back, and she outright hauled Ishida up by the collar, ignoring Orihime's small squeak of fright. "Immature? Immature? After this crap you've pulled, you've got the balls to tell me that I'm being immature? I swear to God, if you weren't already restrained I'd beat the crap out of you. We all know the only reason you said that just now was so that you could go around acting like you didn't screw up today. Well, guess what? You did. And I bet your sensei is turning over in his grave because of it."

Ishida's eyes narrowed at the mention of his sensei. "You have no right—"

Tatsuki's eyes seemed to become outright blood red for a moment, and Ishida flinched as she brought him closer to her face. "I've got no right to WHAT? No right to be pissed the FU—"

"There are minors here, you know," Karin said loudly. Jinta snickered, while Ururu blushed and Kai shrugged; Tatsuki coughed and had the decency to look embarrassed for a second, before continuing her rant.

"—pissed the hell off because you nearly got me and my best friend killed? No right to be pissed the hell off because now my other friend is about to go risk his neck cleaning up your mess? No, I've got every right to be mad and every right to tell you that you're a sack of shi—"

"Please, Tatsuki-chan, enough," Orihime said, putting a hand on Tatsuki's shoulder. "I think you've made your point."

Tatsuki looked over her shoulder at Orihime's sad expression, and relented, dropping Ishida rather unceremoniously and putting her attention back toward the Air Gate. "Anyway, you just sit there and think about it. You're the reason that all of this is happening and you're going to pay for it, sooner or later. You've got no right to talk to us like that about what we've done when you were responsible for pretty much all of it."

Ishida snorted, but said nothing else. Unconsciously, Tatsuki felt her glare soften as she continued to watch the crack in the sky twitch and pulse.

_Be careful, Ichigo._

* * *

**4:40 PM**

Thanks to timely Flash Stepping, Ichigo and Rukia made it to the Air Gate's convergence area within only a minute or two of departing from Urahara's shop. Unfortunately, by the time they got to said convergence area, a small park at the top of some stairs, the team was very much busy defending the medics, clustered together near Hinamori, from the Hollows that had gathered there, while Hinamori was shouting orders in-between firing off _Red Flame Cannon _spells and slashing a stray Hollow or two.

In fact, a Hollow was sneaking up behind her when Ichigo took a running jump and cut it down before it could spring, surprising Hinamori somewhat until the sight of his strawberry-blonde hair reminded her of who he was and what he was doing there.

"Nice form, Kurosaki-san," Hinamori said, after taking a moment to adjust her slightly-loose bun cover. "Thank you for the assistance."

"No problem," Ichigo replied, looking around at any other Hollows that might have been willing to start a ruckus. Finding none, he put his attention to the Air Gate, frowning darkly. "I heard part of the story from Rukia but I want to be sure. What's going to come out of that and how are we going to beat its ass?"

"A Menos Grande, which is a step up from Hollows like the Grand Fisher but not too dangerous for anyone beyond lieutenant level," Hinamori replied, as the rest of the Fifth Division squadron drew themselves back to their Lieutenant and the medical team. "Most likely, it will be at Gillian level."

Ichigo nodded once, noting, as Hinamori, Rukia, and the others did, that the large crowd of Hollows was backing off, and that something in the air was…changing. Things were about to get very hairy very quickly. "And the two classes of Menos Hollow above Gillian are Adjuchas and the Vasto Lorde, right? Neither of them would show up, would they?"

Hinamori shook her head. "Given the strength and level of the distortion, Captain Kurotsuchi believes that the odds of that are low enough to be essentially nonexistent. Between you, me, Kuchiki-san, and the rest of these fellows, we should be able to handle a Gillian."

"Lieutenant Hinamori! It's emerging!" one of the medics shouted, and Hinamori snapped her head up, glaring at the large hand, with long, sharp, hole-eaten nails, emerging from the Air Gate and pulling the sky apart.

"All right, everyone, it's show time! Look sharp! Clear out these Hollows or the Gillian will eat them and gain more power!" She looked at Ichigo and Rukia from the corner of her eye. "Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san, you're with me! I've got a plan to take down the Gillian!"

With that, she leaped upwards in a Flash Step, leaving Ichigo and Rukia to follow her. When they reached the apex of the jump, they were at the same level as the Air Gate, and in a perfect position to watch its other hand grab the other side of the Air Gate and start prying it open, revealing a huge mask with a pointed nose; the nose, just like the nails, had holes running down it in a neat vertical pattern. A circle of thin needles extended out of the Gillian, just above a huge Hollow hole, about halfway down its body.

As the Hollow pulled itself out of the gate, revealing that its only other 'garment' of clothing was a dark cloak of sorts, Rukia shivered, and Ichigo saw her instinctively step back; he had to fight the urge to do the same, and he figured it was the oppressive amount of hunger and darkness and _hate_ that he that he felt from the Hollow's aura of Spiritual Pressure that was causing it. He quickly moved to her side and put a hand on her shoulder, taking a little comfort of his own in the fact that she stopped shivering, and in the slight warmth of her body. "Don't worry. It's three of us against one of him. We can do this."

"It's just the first time I've seen one, aside from a textbook," she whispered hoarsely. "It's an enemy that only the elite face off against. I know we have a lieutenant here to help us, but my blood's running cold."

Before he could respond, Ichigo saw Hinamori from the corner of his eye; she'd retreated to a rooftop, presumably to avoid the Hollow's sight, and he quickly Flash Stepped himself and Rukia over to her before the Hollow noticed.

"Sorry, we got a bit distracted by that thing's Spiritual Pressure," Ichigo said as he stopped his high-speed motion next to Hinamori. "What's the plan?"

"Kuchiki-san and I will be the artillery," Hinamori said, watching as the Gillian took a huge, lumbering step out of the tear in the sky, fully emerging into Karakura. Once its white boot-foot set on the ground, the black, ragged cloak around its body fell down over the limb, covering it; the Menos then opened its mouth and began to spear Hollows with its tongue. Ichigo choked back a retch and put a hand over his mouth, but Hinamori stood solidly, only curling her lip in a frown that looked out of place on her face. "We'll be aiming to crack the mask, so that you can shatter it directly with a powerful strike from your zanpakutou. That's assuming, of course, that your zanpakutou is a power type."

The Gillian pulled its tongue in, chomping the Hollows between its square teeth, and Ichigo's face pinched up. "What the hell is it doing?"

"Menos of all kinds, especially Gillian, need to devour other Hollows in order to stay strong, as they are composed of many, many individual Hollows," Hinamori said. "If they stop, they'll fall apart, disassociate. They'll have no choice."

Ichigo regained his composure and looked around briefly to see a few of the stray Hollows being taken down by Hinamori's team, keeping the Gillian from eating them. "Then bombardment and cutting that mask off sounds like a plan, then." He flicked Rukia in the back of the head, breaking her stupor. "Hey! Come on, we've gotta go! It's time to earn our pay!"

Rukia shrugged Ichigo's hand off as soon as she 'woke up', and glared at him in annoyance before Hinamori cleared her throat to focus the Kuchiki "princess" on the job ahead. "Now, Kuchiki-san. How skilled are you with Hadou 31 and 33? Those will be best for causing the concussive damage we need."

"Red Fire Cannon and Blue Fire, Crash Down? Simple enough for me, I can get them to about 90% power without an incantation. With one, just around 120% power should be my limit."

Hinamori nodded, and she began to convert Spiritual Energy into pressure, focusing it into her hands. "We'll need to Double Incant, then. We can't afford to take any chances." She turned her head briefly to Ichigo, and said, "Once our spells strike, Kurosaki-kun, it's up to you to strike the Gillian down. Understood?"

Ichigo grinned, flaring his Spiritual Pressure. "Hell, yeah."

Rukia followed the lieutenant's lead, focusing her icy Spiritual Pressure and thrusting her hand forward. "Then let's begin."

Hinamori thrust her hand out as well, and together, they began to cast their spells.

"_Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, ye who bears the name of man!_" they shouted, and then Rukia spoke first: "_Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws!_"

"_Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!_" Hinamori added.

Ichigo eagerly drew Zangetsu from its sheath. He was tired of sealing and releasing it as he ran around town, but he hadn't had a choice; he knew that he had to conserve his Spiritual Energy, and running around with Zangetsu unsealed all the time would have tempted him to Getsuga Tenshou every damn Hollow he ran into. Now, though, with the boss here, he was ready, and he was eager to try out a new technique he'd developed based on something he'd learned from Zangetsu himself during their first successful Jinzen.

"Rise, Zangetsu!"

The cleaver burst forth in a flash of light, and Ichigo gripped his released zanpakutou with two hands, holding it parallel to the ground with the edge up. He began to gather Spiritual Energy, preparing to convert it into the Pressure that would send him at the Gillian once the spells had been fired.

Meanwhile, Rukia and Hinamori had hit the second verses of their respective dual-incanted spells. Again, Rukia started things off. "_Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!_" she cried, and Hinamori said shortly afterwards: "_Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws!_"

Red light gathered in front of both women's palms, and swelled up to full size almost instantly; it was then that the Hollow turned ominously towards them, and opened its mouth again. An eerie crimson light began to shine forth from its throat, and Ichigo instinctively Flash Stepped in front of the girls, turning the tip of Zangetsu behind him on his right side.

_Whatever that bastard's planning, it's going to be bad, _he thought, charging up for a Getsuga. _But if I compress this enough, maybe I won't need to go in for a second strike!_

Hinamori growled. "A Cero! This is bad!"

A red sphere formed in front of the Hollow's mouth, and Ichigo began to dash forward, his grin replaced by a grim frown.

"I've got it! Don't worry! Just fire those spells when I stop whatever this asshole is doing!"

Hinamori looked somewhere between distressed and rapidly pissed, but Rukia shook her head before Hinamori could speak. "This is a little insubordinate of me, Lieutenant, but trust in him. You won't regret it."

The Gillian roared. A burst of red Spiritual Energy, tainted, saturated with its Spiritual Pressure flew from the sphere, and Ichigo roared. Zangetsu thrummed with bright Spiritual Pressure as he swung forward.

"GETSUGA TENSHOU!"

The Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer burst from Zangetsu, shining with blue-white power from Ichigo's very soul, and parted the red Cero without halting, rushing forward and forward and _forward_—

And smashed right into the Gillian's face.

The monster roared, Ichigo flashed forward and downward, and Rukia and Hinamori let their spells go.

"Hadou number 33, Blue Fire Crash Down! Hadou number 31, Red Fire Cannon!"

"Hadou number 31, Red Fire Cannon! Hadou number 33, Blue Fire Crash Down!"

Above Ichigo, the red sphere that was the Red Fire Cannon flew forward alongside a wide blue burst of Hinamori's Spiritual Pressure, smashing into the stunned Gillian's face. Moments later, the same combination struck home again, and Ichigo powered up for another Getsuga before air-running upwards and forward, as if ascending a set of steps towards the Gillian.

* * *

"_The Getsuga Tenshou can be contained within my blade to increase my cutting power," Zangetsu said, looking towards the clear sky of Ichigo's Inner World as he held a copy of his released form in his hand. "However, due in part to our still-developing strength, it can't be held for long. At some point, the Getsuga has to be released, or we'll both be injured by the energy's rapid expansion."_

_Ichigo nodded. "So it's perfect for a last-ditch full power-up, provided I time it correctly. What other tips can you give me?"_

_Zangetsu turned toward Ichigo, eyes inscrutable behind the orange visor. "Don't attempt to hold the Getsuga for more than two strikes, at least not now. Any more than that and the backlash will be severe, possibly fatal. You should also be wary of how much compression you put into the technique, or you may not even get that much of a chance before the blade breaks down."_

* * *

Ichigo grunted, and added another chunk of Spiritual Pressure to Zangetsu before compressing it as tightly as possible. Zangetsu began to thrum, and Ichigo grimaced. Basically, he'd doubled the power of the Getsuga and then forcibly doubled it again by compressing all of the pressure at the same time; the zanpakutou would be fine if he got this strike off in time, but if not…things would be dicey.

_Sorry, partner. I know this is dangerous. But I've gotta crush this bastard!_

Ichigo's brown eyes swirled with bluish-white light.

_Yeah. Everyone's counting on me! Karin…Chad…Tatsuki…maybe even Sandal-Hat…and Inoue, too. All of them! They're all counting on me to come back!_

The smoke from the spells and the like finally cleared up, and Ichigo could see it, the crack in the Gillian's mask. Behind it, the Air Gate had opened once more, but Ichigo had no intention of letting it get away. Once more he put Zangetsu's tip behind him, only on the left side. He leapt, and this time, he swung the giant cleaver up as he flew at the mask, executing a picture-perfect rising jump slash.

The first part of the attack's name ripped itself from Ichigo's lips. "GETSUGA!"

The blade cut through the mask like it wasn't even there, and even into the Gillian's body below the mask. When the blade pulled free, the monster had a huge wound in body and mask, splitting its 'head' into nearly two parts.

Then, he centered Zangetsu, and forcibly shunted Spiritual Pressure out of the top of his shoulders as he swung Zangetsu down—and when he swung down, he let the Getsuga burst out of Zangetsu at full power as he went sliding down, down, down.

"HAZAN!"

Blue and white power burst forward, and outward, consuming the Hollow's upper half but completely. Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure exploded outward, settling in the air like a blanket. Even in the heat of combat against the other Hollows, the assembled members of the Fourth and Fifth division felt it. They would later describe the sensation as being surrounded by a blanket of pure, vivid sky blue light. Powerful, but compassionate. Concerned with the protection of life, but ferocious, tenacious, unyielding to anyone and anything that would stand in its way, or threaten the innocent.

The women, and perhaps some of the men that were there to witness the event, would join with the fledgling "Ichigo Kurosaki Appreciation Group" born from members of the Thirteenth Division following Ichigo and Rukia's defeat of the Grand Fisher.

And that would go down in history as the start of what would eventually become the Seireitei's largest fan club dedicated to any Soul Reaper, unseated or no.

* * *

**4:42 PM**

From whereOrihime,Chad, Tatsuki, and Karin, stood in front of Urahara's shop, Ichigo's Getsuga Hazan was overtly visible, but the impression on their fledgling spiritual senses was brief. Yet, they knew it when they felt it, instinctively. And when they saw the now headless Menos Grande fade away, they knew that he had won absolutely.

This was Ichigo's power.

"…wow," Orihime said breathily. "That was…that was Kurosaki-kun. He really is strong."

Chadwas silent for a while, but eventually put a hand on the coin around his neck, standing a little bit taller. "He always was."

Urahara smiled deviously and motioned to Tessai, who once more picked up Ishida and slung him over a shoulder. "Now. It's time to go take care of this little problem." The cat on Urahara's shoulder then leapt off, and looked up at the assembled group. "So you'll take care of our guests, Yoruichi?"

"Yes, I will," the cat said, and the deep male timbre of its voice made everyone that wasn't affiliated with the Urahara Shop flinch. "Though I hope you don't intend to conceal them from Soul Society, Kisuke. You could cause more problems for Kurosaki-kun and Kuchiki-san that way."

"I wouldn't dream of it." He winked. "Be back soon."

With that, he and Tessai disappeared. Yoruichi turned to face Ichigo's friends, its tail twitching. "Now, come back inside with the children. We're going to wait for Kisuke. Let's hope his plan works, because I would rather not have to be the one to take care of the children if things go wrong."

Tatsuki stared at the cat in disbelief. "You're his backup plan? But you're a cat! How are you supposed to take care of three elementary school students?"

Yoruichi shook her head. "I'm not a cat. And like I said, I would rather not think about how I'm going to pull off that particular plan. Now, come."

With that, the cat sauntered off into the store, and after much shrugging and frowning, the assorted group followed Yoruichi inside.

* * *

Ichigo, Rukia, and Hinamori all Flash Stepped down to the now-semi-ruined park, and the moment they came back into visibility, the Reapers uninjured by the rapidly-dispersing Hollow swarm burst into applause.

"Now you've done it, Ichigo," Rukia said, shaking her head. "Giving the killing blow to a Gillian of all things, without being a seated officer—you've no idea how many people are going to swarm you once they hear of it."

"So people are afraid of me at my actual school, but at my not-actual school, they love me," Ichigo muttered. "Beautiful."

"You did a wonderful job," Hinamori said, beaming brightly. "Kurosaki-kun, you're a brave young man. And your control of your Spiritual Pressure, your power, it's amazing."

Ichigo shrugged, sealed Zangetsu wordlessly, and sheathed it with practiced ease. "It's thanks to all the hard work everyone's been putting into making me useful." _And thanks to you, too, Zangetsu._

He felt approving warmth come from his zanpakutou, and knew how Zangetsu felt immediately.

"Pardon me, ladies and gentlemen, but I've got a special package here for one Ichigo Kurosaki~"

At the sound of Urahara's voice wafting over the air, Ichigo and Rukia snapped their heads up to see the shopkeeper and Tessai walking up to Ichigo, Rukia, and Hinamori, with a bound, livid Ishida slung over Tessai's shoulder.

"Here you go, Ichigo-kun," Urahara said cheerfully, and at a wave of his hand Tessai dumped Ishida on the ground. "The youngQuincythat broke the Hollow bait, right here."

Hinamori's normally kind face became stony, and Ichigo noted that on a girl of her appearance (because despite what he knew about Hinamori's potential age, she looked like his age, dammit!), the expression was both unfitting and perfectly suited to the situation, as contradictory as that was. "Hollow bait?" And then her eyes narrowed. "Quincy?"

"Have you heard of them?" Urahara asked, hoping briefly that he wouldn't have to explain, because that would bring up more questions that he would rather not answer.

"A few things, yes. I happened to be particularly adept at historical studies." She looked at Ishida with that cold stare on her face, and the boy met it, unafraid. "I was under the impression that they were all dead after an incident a few years ago."

Ishida's eyes grew cold at that, but he said nothing. Ichigo simply shook his head, and said, "He's a student at my school, Uryuu Ishida. I don't know why he had to be such an asshole about this whole thing, but I offered him a chance to surrender peacefully, and that's when he broke that damn bait." His voice softened. "Look, I know he was being a colossal asshole, but please, don't…don't hurt him."

Hinamori shook her head. "Though he is aQuincy, he is not a threat so long as he doesn't have his powers. I can't make the final decision, but I can take immediate action for now." She paused, as if deliberating something, and then looked to a blue-haired male Reaper nearby. "Tatsumiya, can you do me a favor and contact the Twelfth Division? Ask them to send along a hard-locked Suppression Band as soon as possible." She then focused on Urahara again. "And who are you, sir?"

"Just a shopkeeper that's had a few run-ins with Soul Reapers before," Urahara replied easily. "You see, I happened to meet Ichigo-kun some time back, during a taping of a spiritualist's show at an abandoned hospital. I offered him my aid, if they ever needed somewhere to rest and recuperate in safety, and he accepted. When this Ishida-kun fellow decided to cause some trouble with his Hollow bait, they dropped him off with me, and while they were patrolling, they found some of his friends and also dropped them off with me. Apparently they'd awakened their own powers, somehow or another, and purified a few Hollows."

Hinamori sighed and rubbed her forehead, while Ichigo and Rukia squirmed, unsure of how the lieutenant would react. "Tatsumiya," she said, raising her voice slightly, make that…well, how many of them are there?"

"Three," Ichigo said.

"Four hard-locked Suppression Bands, and let the First Division know that I'm requesting an emergency meeting of the captains and lieutenants. Also, please inquire about the current procedure for dealing with spiritually-empowered humans, and theQuincy." Tatsumiya nodded and saluted before setting about his task; Hinamori closed her eyes and sighed once more. "This is not at all good, Kurosaki-kun. The Captain-General is likely to have my head for all of this nonsense."

"At least we caught the dummy that caused pretty much all of it," Ichigo said. Then, his eyes hardened just a bit, becoming amber chips set in his face. "And I'll take responsibility for both him and my friends, too, if I have to. I must not have controlled myself well enough, if my friends were able to develop powers, and if I'd just knocked out the guy when I saw him, he wouldn't have broken the bait. Most of those things could be called my fault, so I'll have to deal with the consequences."

Hinamori seemed surprised by the heavy finality in Ichigo's tone of voice. In contrast, Rukia, Urahara, and even Ishida, not to mention those Reapers close enough to overhear all of this, were visibly impressed by it, and Rukia even cracked a smile, the first change in her neutral expression for some time.

_You've grown, Ichigo._

At length, Hinamori nodded. "Very well then." She looked over to Tatsumiya, who was still making the call, and then said to Urahara, "Mr. Shopkeeper. I need you to bring Kurosaki-san's friends here, and then we need to wait."

Tessai simply nodded and walked off; Ichigo sighed, figuring that from where they were standing, it would take a good fifteen minutes to walk to the Urahara Shop and another fifteen to get back. He didn't like to admit that he enjoyed the adrenaline rush from the battles he'd gone through today, but he had, and now that they were gone he was looking forward to just going home and trying to enjoy what was left of his birthday.

As much as he could, anyway, assuming that Captain-General Yamamoto wasn't eating his head for dinner that night.

* * *

**5:35 PM**

By the time that Tessai came back from the shop with Ichigo's friends and Karin, the majority of the other Reapers were gone. Some had returned to Soul Society, while a small detachment stayed and purified any other Hollows that might have chosen to stay in Karakura.

During that half-hour break, Hinamori had taken some time to help Ichigo review Kidou, bringing his White Lightning spell up to what she would consider a decent level and beginning to instruct him in the use of Hadou number 11, Bound Lightning. When she'd finished with that, Ishida had motioned Ichigo over to him with hard jerks of his head, and despite some initial misgivings, Ichigo had done as he was "asked".

Even as his sister and friends came into view, Ichigo found himself turning over their conversation in his mind.

* * *

"_I acted in a manner that shames my people's memory," Ishida said, his eyes distant but not exactly cold, not anymore. "I was arrogant, selfish, and unfeeling. Most importantly, I betrayed the ideals of my sensei. I...owe you an apology for the trouble I've caused. And I give it, hoping you will accept it."_

_Ichigo sighed, rubbing his head, and scowled down at the bound-up Quincy. "To be honest, I shouldn't accept it, considering all of the things that could have happened to my friends thanks to that bait." His scowl deepened, but his brows loosened up at the same time. "Still, you seem sorry enough, and either way, it's all done now, so I suppose I might as well let it go. As long as you don't get pissed about losing your powers or whatever, that is. I'd hope you've learned that grudges don't get you anywhere."_

"_My sensei said something similar," Ishida replied. "At the time, I didn't think much of it, but...maybe if I had given some thought to those words I wouldn't be so inclined towards hating Soul Reapers."_

_Ichigo paled. "Don't tell me that they—"_

_Ishida shook his head. "No, Hollows. They ambushed sensei and I wasn't skilled enough to help him. They came eventually, but not until…after."_

_It was then that Ichigo could see, however briefly, something of himself in Ishida. It was pretty obvious from the way the Quincy was speaking about his sensei that he respected and probably deeply cared for the man. To lose someone like that to a Hollow…that was a pain Ichigo understood too keenly._

"_My mother was killed by Hollows, too," Ichigo said, and Ishida's brows shot up in surprise. "I guess you could say I got lucky, though, because I sent the bastard that did it to Soul Society with my own two hands, and my partner here." He tapped the end of sealed Zangetsu's handle with a grin, causing the white tassel to sway slightly. "And after that fight, I sat down, and gave some real thought to things. See, I have to be a Reaper, one way or another. I didn't really have a choice. But I did have a reason, and that was to keep the people that mattered most to me safe." He shook his head, the smile fading. "In the end, though, I saw that 'protecting who I cared for' wasn't enough. I had to try to protect everyone, to keep other people from living through what I did, because that would be something that my mother would support me in. Something that she could be proud of me for doing."_

_After another moment of silence, Ishida nodded. "…I see. That makes sense." He shifted somewhat, turning away from Ichigo outright. "For what it's worth, I've no intention of holding this against you. My father…he's been telling me to focus my attention on those that are living, and not the dead." Before Ichigo could say anything, Ishida added, "He's sensitive enough to spirits, I'm sure, but he has no intention or interest in living as a Quincy. He works as the director of Karakura Hospital."_

_Ichigo blinked, realizing suddenly that he had yet another connection to Ishida now—Isshin had something of a working relationship with the director of that specific hospital, often sending patients that he couldn't work with to the larger, better equipped facility for treatment. "So, with my powers likely to be gone, I'll have to take his advice. Somewhat…frustrating, but given that it's my own fault, I suppose I might have been asking for it." Then, the Quincy's tone switched from self-deprecating to serious. "Just promise me one thing, though, Kurosaki."_

"_And that is?"_

"_That ideal of yours. Protecting everyone. Keep living up to that. Otherwise, I'll do whatever it takes to get my powers back so that I can beat you into a paste."_

_Ichigo smirked, but not unkindly. "Yeah, sure. Consider that promise made and lived up to."_

* * *

Ichigo was pulled out of the memory when Karin punched him in the shoulder to get his attention; wincing, he glared down at her, but stopped when he saw the smile on her face; small, self-satisfied, but also relieved.

"Good job, Ichi-nii. Just like always."

To hide his slight embarrassment, Ichigo put on his usual confident smirk, though he softened it just enough for Karin to see how much the compliment meant to him.

It was then that Hinamori came over to the group, Soul Phone in hand. "I've just gotten off the phone with the Captain-General. For the time being, he's stated that the Quincy and Kurosaki-kun's friends are to have the hard-locked Suppression Bands applied immediately. While your friends may have theirs adjusted based on the results of the Twelfth Division's testing and the Central 46's judgement, theQuincyis not to have his removed at all, and you, Kurosaki-kun, are responsible for monitoring him. Should he become a threat to this town again, you are to eliminate him."

Ichigo did his best to hide the anger that nearly burst out of him when Hinamori casually mentioned killing Ishida; the Quincy was a damn fool and deserved to have his powers removed for his self-admitted foolishness, but there was no way Ichigo was going to put an innocent human's blood on his hands and zanpakutou. "What's the difference between regular Bands and the hard-locked ones?" Ichigo asked, switching gears to keep his mind off that train of thought. "They don't come off?"

"They do," Hinamori said, "but it's much more difficult to take them off. Most certainly impossible without specialized equipment."

_Equipment that Urahara probably has, assuming that we still have access to him after all of this,_ Ichigo thought to himself. Assuming that his friends' powers weren't anything like Ishida's, he wasn't going to have them put in danger again if he could help it. However, Hinamori had mentioned something about having the bands adjusted, so maybe Yamamoto was already planning for the case that the Central 46 let them keep their powers.

Hinamori's passive expression didn't change as she turned to Urahara and Tessai. "Regarding you, Mr. Shopkeeper, I received no specific orders, aside from a request that you continue to avoid actively interfering with the function of Soul Society's business from here on out. Passive support such as what you have given is permissible, but we will take accordant action if you go beyond that point."

Urahara merely tipped his hat in response. "Aye, ma'am."

Ichigo and Rukia, as well as Karin and Ichigo's friends, had to fight the urge to stare at one another in stupefied confusion. If Hinamori was in the slightest as professional as Urahara had indicated most Lieutenants were, she would have told Yamamoto about Urahara in excruciating detail, and in turn the Captain-General would have, or should have, recognized Urahara just from any description of his features.

It was Rukia, however, that managed to come out of her shock first, with a hard, introspective look on her face. Ichigo noticed this from the corner of his eye and immediately twigged to the fact that she'd thought of something, but held his tongue; it would have to wait until Hinamori was gone.

Just as the silence falling over them began to get uncomfortable, Tatsumiya jogged up to Hinamori and gave her a box. "An officer from the Twelfth just dropped this off," he said. "The full-lock Bands, as you requested."

Hinamori smiled up at the man, clearing the solemnity from her brow. "Thank you, Tatsumiya." Once more turning to the assembled group, she opened the box, revealing four white bands that looked exactly like Ichigo's Suppression Bands; three had the kanji for "human" written on them in black ink, and one had the katakana characters for "Quincy" written on it, most likely a shorthand way of telling who was to wear which one. "Each of you is to take one of these, put it on around your bicep, and go home. Once the judgement of the 46 is rendered, your fates will be decided."

Silently,Orihime,Chad, and Tatsuki each took one of the bands labeled "human" and put them on as instructed. Immediately, Ichigo felt their fledgling Spiritual Energies drop to normal human levels, though only Tatsuki showed any reaction to the device once it was on; her hair shrank back to normal length, the scales disappeared, and her eyes returned to normal.

Tatsumiya then took the last armband and cinched it around Ishida's arm while Hinamori took the box and closed it. She then frowned, as she looked over the group again. "Wait. Kurosaki-kun, that little girl there. You didn't include her in the count."

"That's my sister, Karin. She's got no powers, she's only sensitive," Ichigo said. "If she develops them, I'll be the first to tell you guys. Until then, I'll watch over her."

Again, he spoke with the weight of solemn maturity, and while Hinamori wasn't particularly cowed into silence, she seemed to accept his confidence and the promise that he would be forthright when the time came to be.

"Then our business is done here," she said at last, smiling softly. "Kurosaki-kun, keep practicing Bound Lightning, and we'll add some Bakudou to your exercises this weekend." Turning her attention to what remained of the emergency response team, she raised her voice. "We're moving out! Head back to the location where the Hell Butterflies were stored for the return trip and let's get going! I've got reports to write!"

Once she and Tatsumiya had walked out of earshot, all eyes were glaring at Urahara, who'd opened up his fan and was waving it so fast that his hair was being blown back by the breeze.

"I can't believe you," Ichigo said, his voice at a low, angry growling pitch. "Here you were, going on about how carefully we had to tread in order to pull this off, and nothing happened."

Rukia, studying Hinamori's retreating back, shook her head. "No, you're wrong, Ichigo. The Gotei 13 has taken notice of this. Lieutenant Hinamori just didn't want Urahara to think that they had. What she just told him is likely to be a cover to keep him from recognizing how much trouble he's really in."

"Kuchiki-san's got the right of it," Urahara said, his voice equally serious. "The Gotei 13 is planning something, and they're likely not willing to risk a capture on me just yet if they told the Lieutenant to deliver that message to me."

"And why is that, precisely?"

Urahara smiled and tapped the side of his head. "Suffice it to say that my intelligence, and the danger I could represent to Soul Society if I chose to be dangerous, is not to be underestimated. To be honest, out of the scenarios I'd planned for, this one is one of the better ones." His face grew somber again. "However, whatever is planned is likely not to be of any concern for any of you. Leave that matter to me—don't feel as if you have to lie on my behalf anymore, or anything of the sort. I'm more than capable of taking care of things myself."

There was an undercurrent of steel in that remark that left no doubt in anyone's minds that Urahara wasn't joking about that.

"As for the rest of you," the shopkeeper continued, "it's as the Lieutenant said. The Central 46 will have to decide your punishments, and considering your relative youth, Ichigo-kun's willingness to take responsibility for all of you, and the fact that you acted in self-defense—excepting, of course, Ishida-kun there—you may get off as lightly as Ichigo-kun did. But all of that is likely to take about a week's time or two, and that's more than enough time for me to get all of my preparations done." He smiled. "So, for now, just relax."

Tessai then stepped forward, and fished Ichigo's red Suppression Band out of the pocket of his apron, giving it to the Deputy Reaper. "On the off chance that you forgot to collect your body and belongings from the shop, I felt it would be best to give this back to you, Kurosaki-kun."

Ichigo nodded and reattached the restraining device. After the familiar drop of his Spiritual Energy, he turned to his friends. "Guys. I'm sorry for dragging you into this. Really."

Chadshrugged, while Orihime and Tatsuki shook their heads. "It's all right, Kurosaki-kun," Orihime said, her cheeks slightly reddening. "To be honest, though I was kind of scared…but when my powers helped me out, I was glad that I was able to protect Tatsuki-chan."

Chadnodded his agreement, and Tatsuki spoke next. "Plus, it was actually kind of cool, how I felt when my powers were active. It felt good, right. If I lose them, it'll be a shame, but…I don't regret having them for a second."

"Though that now begs the question of how you even got them," Rukia said, back in deep thought. "Aside from dealing with Inoue-san's brother and several isolated incidents that didn't involve any of you children, Ichigo hasn't taken his armband off, so his Spiritual Energy was suppressed at all times when he wasn't around you."

Though his friends looked rightly affronted by being called children (he'd have to remind them later that Rukia was well over five times their ages, Ichigo noted), Ichigo ignored their reactions and shook his head. "That Kurotsuchi guy told me to my face that I'd already been leaking Energy of my own even with the armband on. He didn't say why, but I've been thinking about it, and it might have been because it hadn't been adjusted properly until he looked at it."

Rukia blinked, then paled, then cursed in a very unladylike manner, causing Orihime to squeak and clap her hands over Karin's ears reflexively. "So until you got your shikai I was effectively letting you traipse around Karakura without sufficiently throttling your strength. And I meant to take you to get your armband adjusted, but I never remembered to do it. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!"

"Either way, what's done is done," Tatsuki said. "We'll live with it, or not if these Central 46 guys decide it that way." She then stretched and yawned. "To be honest, I'm nervous, but I'm also too damn tired to really care right now. I think it's high time we go home and figure all of this nonsense out later."

Chadnodded, and after a while so did Karin and Orihime. Ichigo simply looked up, into the still-blue, now completely unblemished sky, and sighed.

"Yeah. I know what you mean."

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Heh. Man, this was tough. I had to write Hinamori as the consummate professional because, well, she tries to be, had to make sure that Urahara's still-secure position wasn't an ass-pull, had to remember who was where and not forget about them…it was tough, but I like what I did here._

_Make no mistake, Urahara getting involved here will have repercussions, if Rukia's very bald statement and Urahara's agreement with it didn't make that clear enough. Knowing who Urahara is, though, the Gotei can't just try dropping on him like righteous lightning. He was a captain for a reason._

_Well, Ishida's gotten one part of his comeuppance here. And to those that think he's being easily forgiven, well…yeah, no. Not really. Yes, I did set things up so that he could get a shot at redeeming himself, joining the Karakura Gang, because Bleach, without Ishida, is to me not quite the same. However, if he does join them you'd better damn well believe he's going to prove he's got his head on straight, first._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_Getsuga Hazan: literally, "Moon Fang Break Slash". This technique was actually derived from a currently-existing move from another series I happen to enjoy very much (name it and you get a cookie), at least in terms of its naming structure. As the name implies, it's really more a derivative of the Getsuga Tenshou than an actual new technique._

_Student Review Corner:_

_None specifically, but I do have a thank-you to give to **The Sinful**, who brought to my attention a line from Chapter 14 that implied that Hinamori hadn't been a lieutenant for an especially long time (as in, not much longer than Renji, who got his post a little more than two months ago in this story, sometime in April or May). It's been fixed, and you can check the bottom of the Notes in that section to see if the revision has been uploaded correctly (it should be, I made a point to upload it before I uploaded this chapter)._

_Since I'm feeling especially inspired by some stories I've read recently (**The Hill of Swords** and **In Flight** by Gabriel Blessing most particularly), I'll share these little tidbits: next chapter is going to be the one that really covers the fallout of this event, in terms of the way everyone feels about their taste of power, what Soul Society plans to do about Urahara, etc. Not much action, sorry, but more like setting the groundwork for what's to come._

_Then we cover my version of the Soul Society arc, and when the events in Soul Society are over and done with, so too is the story of First Semester. At that point, I'll be taking a break for a while, and if I'm able to find the motivation to start and finish Second Semester, I'll begin working on it at some point. If not, then I'll be probably moving on to work even harder on my own original ideas._

_But all of that's a couple of months away. In the meantime, enjoy this one. I'll see you all next class._

_~ZS_


	16. Lesson 16: Workplace Inquiries 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 16: Workplace Inquiries 101, or Consequences of Carelessness_

* * *

**Thursday, July 15, 6:15 PM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase: Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

When all was said and done, Ichigo and Karin had gone back home together. Rukia had given him the rest of the night off, more than fine with taking care of patrol by herself. The ride had been a quiet one, uninterrupted by any idle conversation, but once they got home, got inside, and got through Ichigo's birthday celebrations (which, as always, ended with Isshin unconscious, Ichigo pissed off distinctly, and Karin annoyed), they retreated to Ichigo's room and closed the door.

"So, Ichi-nii," Karin said, her voice conversational and calm. "When that 'truck' crashed into the side of the house, was that when this started?"

Ichigo nodded; that part of the story had been excised during Urahara's explanation of what the Soul Reapers did, in favor of expedience of the highest order. However, Karin's growing Spiritual Energy likely meant that she'd regained some measure of the original events, overriding the modified memories she'd been given, or simply been suspicious of it once she'd heard how long Ichigo had been doing his new job. "Yeah. Well, sort of. That was the first time I used the powers. It wasn't until that Saturday that I actually was given the job."

"But why didn't this happen to us before then? Why did it take so long for one of these Hollows to attack us?"

Ichigo bit his lip, and Karin immediately tensed at the uncharacteristic sign of nervousness from her brother. Eventually, he looked down, more ashamed than sad. "It wasn't the first time."

The next word was choked.

"Mom."

Karin's response was quiet, harsh, and sad. "No…."

For the second time that year, Karin Kurosaki shed tears. They slid down her cheeks, hot and fresh, but her lips were pressed into a thin, stubborn line, keeping the crying and wailing all bottled up inside of her. Ichigo simply pulled her close and said nothing. Once more, he felt the burden of his mistakes in the past, weighing on his back like Mount Fuji.

_Duty, Ichigo-kun, is heavier than a mountain._

So was failure, Ichigo realized at that moment. Almost ten times heavier, in fact.

When Karin finally recovered herself, she looked at Ichigo, who smiled as softly as he could. "I don't know if you remember," he said, "but when we went to Mom's grave, the same Hollow came back. Rukia and I beat it when it tried to get you and Yuzu there. Do you remember that too?"

Again, Karin recalled being cradled in her brother's arms, safely spirited away from the Hollow. "Yes, I remember." She gripped him tightly. "Ichi-nii…this whole time, you've been protecting us by patrolling the town with Kuchiki-san, right? How many of those things have you beaten?"

"More than I care to remember," Ichigo said, his voice suddenly tired. "But the fact of the matter is that it's what I've got to do. Because of how I got this power, it's what I have to do for a long, long time. And you can count on me to not ever stop doing it."

The sudden weight of maturity in her brother's voice made Karin pause. "Ichi-nii."

"Believe in me, Karin." He gripped her just a little bit tighter, and his eyes narrowed. "I'm not going to let anything hurt any person in my sight. There will be no one that has to suffer like us. No one."

Though he was in his human body, Karin could instinctively, crudely sense the warmth of her brother's Spiritual Energy, a supplement to his body's natural heat. Because of that, she simply stayed in his grip, her tears dried, her sorrow still fresh, and yet her heart was somewhat at ease.

_Ichi-nii really has lived up to his name. And I get the feeling he won't ever stop._

* * *

**6:17 PM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase: Arisawa Residence**

Lying prone on her bed in her blue-and-white-walled room, Tatsuki sighed, staring at her hands. No matter what she did, she couldn't dispel that image, the image of her hands becoming scaly and clawed, from her mind. Her parents hadn't wondered too much about what had taken her so long to get home, accepting her excuse of running long in training.

Though, when she thought about it, training hadn't given her nearly as much of a rush as fighting that Hollow had. She'd done it to protect Orihime, yes, but something about how strong and fast she'd become _invigorated _her. The rush she'd felt was so amazing, and even now she found that she was missing it more than just a little bit.

How was she supposed to defend herself against Hollows without that strength? Not that Ichigo wasn't reliable, but dammit, he couldn't be everywhere at the same time. If something like today happened again and she didn't have her powers, then she might as well call herself a walking corpse.

"And why should I be defenseless when I'm capable of taking care of myself?" she murmured, clenching and opening her hands. "Why?"

Once more, the feelings of that afternoon—of the fire that flowed from her hands, of her hear racing and soaring as she charged down the Hollow, the joy and thrill of victory as she punched its seeds apart—washed over her.

She wanted to experience that at will, and now the black armband cinched around her arm was preventing that. She felt an itch under her skin, something that _burned_ within her, when she realized that she could not defend herself anymore, or even feel that rush of power once again.

_I wonder if this is what Urahara-san meant, _Tatsuki thought, moving her hands away to stare at her ceiling, the deliberately unpainted white spots standing starkly against the blue. _Am I seeing that world that we were entering or whatever? Knowing that there are monsters out there, ready and waiting to strike, and we're defenseless against them…. That bothers me._

Sighing, she sat up, looked around at her room. Across from her and in the corner, in front of her sliding-door closet, her old duffel bag sat next to a pair of weights. To her right, next to her bed, was where her backpack would have been if she hadn't left it at school. She wouldn't have left it at all, actually, had it not been for that stupid Hollow.

Groaning, she covered her face with a forearm, and tried to ignore the squeezing of the armband around her bicep. "I need to get some sleep, at least until dinnertime."

It took what seemed like forever for her eyes to close, but when they did, she dreamed of swirling, roaring fires surrounding her in a shadowy void. But they were warm fires, gentle and almost protective, and in the shadows outside of the fire, she could have sworn that something blue slithered around.

* * *

**6:14 PM**

**Karakura Town, Sakurabashi: Orihime Inoue's (New) Apartment**

Whenever Orihime cooked, she found it a blessed release from whatever thoughts tended to bother her. She could focus her efforts entirely on the meal, and put aside her troubles for a while.

That only half-way applied today.

Today, she was making miso soup, mostly because she'd been reminded of her brother Sora as memories of her first encounter with an empowered Ichigo returned to her. It was his favorite dish, though not quite the way she made it (though she never quite found that tidbit out, considering that his accident had happened before she'd started cooking).

As bits of asparagus, peanut butter, radishes, and quite a few other things went into the miso pot, Orihime's thoughts drifted back to the schoolyard. Back to the pain of Tatsuki hitting her, the fear she'd felt standing against the Hollow, the raw satisfaction of defeating something so threatening and being able to protect Tatsuki for once….

The bitter-tangy-sour smell of the soup cooking in front of her brought her mind back to the present for a moment, and she quickly turned down the stove before tossing a few more ingredients in, giving it a nice sea-green coloring.

In short order, though, her mind was back on the battle, replaying it over and over again. Those mysterious fairies, the Shun Shun Rikka, that lived in the very hairclips she wore now—even though today was the first time she'd met them it felt like they really were a part of her.

She found herself missing them, wishing that she could call them forward even now just to talk to them, to see how much of her they really knew. Some part of the entire experience just seemed too surreal. Because she'd gotten a replacement shirt as soon as she'd gotten to Urahara's shop with Tatsuki, and because Urahara had personally seen to her healing with a salve he'd had on hand, nothing—not even the aches and pains of her exertions or her destroyed clothing—was left as a reminder of her ordeals.

One of the few things convincing her otherwise was the ghost of a scent that had been lingering in her nose since she'd approached Ichigo after his battle. She noticed that it was a scent that came only from him, and though she couldn't ask anyone else about it for obvious reasons, she was absolutely positive that she was the only one who could smell it.

Even with the armband on, the smell still followed her. It might have been just her imagination, but perhaps if she'd really put her mind to it she'd be able to follow the scent all the way to Ichigo's house. Considering that she now lived farther east than she used to, though, that would be a long trip, not to mention that the only person aside from Ichigo that she knew from the Kurosaki family was Karin and it would be really awkward explaining how she'd found her way there in the dead of night and—

Orihime rapidly shook her head to stop that train of thought, blushing at the thought of wandering the streets late at night and literally sniffing her way to Ichigo's place. To pull her mind off of that, she turned off the stove and put the pot of soup on one of the inactive burners while she went rooting around in some of her still semi-packed boxes for a bowl and a spoon. She'd been moved in for about two weeks, but studying for finals had precluded most of the unpacking, especially since her aunt had been annoyed by the fact that she'd been kicked out of her old apartment and more or less told her "you pass your exams or your allowance will be cut".

Once she found what she needed, she shared out her soup, put the rest into her fridge, and went to her room with a plastic dining tray to carry the soup. Though the walls were still bare and there were piles and piles of boxes yet to be unpacked, her brother's picture and the small shrine that went with it were right next to her bed.

With a smile, Orihime settled down on her bed, and looked at her brother, putting the tray in her lap.

"Hey there, big brother," she said. "I've got a good story to tell you today, about Kurosaki-kun."

* * *

**4:30 PM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase: Yasutora Sado's Apartment**

Now that he had time to think about things, Chad realized that he'd been blessed today.

Things could have gone a lot worse, had it not been for the fact that Kai had probably weakened the Hollow that attacked them at the park. It would have been left to him to bring down the monster, and though he hadn't said a word to either Karin or Kai as they'd gone to Mitsumiya, the strike Chad had landed on the Hollow had been draining to him.

Sitting cross-legged on the small blue sofa in his living room, dressed in a sky-blue-and black patterned shirt and dark sweatpants, Chad strummed a few notes on his bass guitar, more absentmindedly than anything. Soon enough though, memories of a song he'd heard once in Mexico came back to him, and he began to play, adapting the leading notes that would be played by a regular guitar to the lower notes of his bass.

As he played, the memories of the warm Mexican sun washed over him, and he could almost see the sunset in his mind. Taken by nostalgia and again reminded of his fortune, he offered a silent prayer to his grandfather.

_Abuelo, your teachings delivered me today. Without them, without that feeling of confidence in the lessons you imparted to me, I don't know what would have happened._

As he shifted to a particularly complicated part of the song, he felt the black band around his upper right bicep clench a little bit, but he paid it no mind. It had done so infrequently since he'd been wearing it, and it wasn't uncomfortable. However, it did bring to mind the memories of his arm becoming armored, and he hummed thoughtfully as his fingers flew across the strings with practiced speed and no real conscious thought.

_Though I wonder what precisely will come of all of this. Even with this armband sealing my 'powers'…does that mean I can't see spirits anymore? Or will I be able to see them and not do anything to fight them?_

His thoughts then turned to Ichigo. Having been the Deputy Reaper's friend and "battle buddy" (a term Keigo coined that neither Chad nor Ichigo liked) from middle school, Chad felt the instinctive urge to find a way to keep helping him fight against the Hollows. He knew that said urge was in part related to the promise they made, and in part a way of thanking him for helping Yuuichi out—at least now that Chad remembered that Ichigo _had_ helped Yuuichi out.

He also understood that Ichigo was bound and determined to keep his friends off the battlefield, given that Ichigo had been the one to wipe his memories. However, Chad held both the promise he made to Ichigo and Ichigo's own health and safety in higher regard than respecting Ichigo's wishes, and he came to a decision as he played the last notes of the song.

_I will find a way to stand alongside Ichigo. I am strong. I have gifts that can do something great, and I have embraced those gifts…_

He inspected his right palm, and clenched it into a fist.

…_With this right hand._

* * *

**4:34 PM**

**Karakura Town, Kitakawase: Ishida Residence**

Uryuu Ishida had been dreading any sort of contact with his father today—at least after the Hollow incident had been resolved. Because the short sleeves of his shirt couldn't hide the black armband that he'd been burdened with, there would be no hiding what happened, and though his father would likely not say anything to indicate his disappointment (after all, the man had been trying to make Ishida put aside the lifestyle of the Quincy for practically all of his life), there would no doubt be a scathing "I told you so" from the elder Ishida's mouth.

Luckily, Ryuuken Ishida was busy at the hospital, or so it seemed when Ishida got home; though the armband did what it was meant to and kept him from gathering the Spiritual Particles that he needed to make his bow and arrows, his actual spiritual senses hadn't been dampened in the slightest, and he'd detected absolutely no one in the house. Satisfied by that, Ishida left his shoes at the door and went straight through the living room to his room.

The cool gray of his walls and the bookshelf on the left side of his doorframe (on his right side from his current perspective) immediately helped soothe his raw nerves, more so than the walk home had. Being spell-bound up like a fish by Rukia, and then Urahara ("just in case, and because I know Kuchiki-dono doesn't know spells to keep you from pulling funny Quincy tricks", the shopkeeper had said) had done little to improve his mood.

As he put his backpack down next to the bookshelf, Ishida's thoughts drifted back to Ichigo Kurosaki, as they had been ever since he'd begun his walk home from the Urahara Shop. With the knowledge that the Deputy Reaper had also been through the loss of a loved one, Ishida felt conflicted. He'd found a kindred spirit in terms of spiritual gifts and life experiences, and yet said kindred spirit was a member of an organization he bitterly hated.

Furthermore, with Ichigo's official duty now relegated to "kill Hollows and keep an eye on the Quincy", they were likely to be spending a lot of time in one another's company, especially being that they were classmates. Granted, in a few more days they'd all be on summer vacation, but since the school year had begun in April they weren't going to get new class assignments for a while yet, so they'd be back in close proximity once the break was over—or even earlier than that, if Ichigo took his new job particularly seriously and decided to stalk Ishida throughout summer break.

Of course, the worst part of the deal so far as Ishida was concerned was simple: now, he had no powers. He had no doubt in his mind that his spiritual presence could still be noticed, but the armband had probably ratcheted it down to a level just above a normal human's if what he could sense of his own strength was any indication. He was basically in a position to watch and watch and watch as the Soul Reapers kept taking it on themselves to "purify" Hollows, but no more than that. And while he couldn't quite transfer his extreme hatred of them to Ichigo anymore, if only because Ichigo had done his level best to keep the Soul Reapers from killing him outright, he would forever be galled by the fact that he'd been rendered useless by them.

Sighing, Ishida crouched in front of his bed and pulled out his sewing kit, and then moved to his closet. He had a spare outfit or two he hadn't finished mending yet, and even if he couldn't use them anymore, he needed the familiar rhythm of sewing and stitching to calm his agitation.

Especially since he was now starting to remember how angrily Tatsuki had denounced him for using the Hollow bait, and to his chagrin and annoyance, he couldn't quite tell himself that she was wrong about how selfish and short-sighted he'd been, not anymore. It didn't help that the results of his actions had been almost literally staring them in the face at that time, what with Tatsuki's transformation and Orihime's slight, still-fading injuries.

He sighed, shaking his head.

_Sensei…. I'm sorry. It looks like the legacy of the Quincy might die with you._

* * *

**Friday, July 16th, Noon**

**Karakura Town, Gakuenchou: Karakura High School, Class 1-3**

Aside from a mild curiosity regarding the shattered windows on the ground floor of the school and a number of absent classmates, class on Friday was pretty normal. However, a few things were different come lunchtime.

First and foremost, Orihime and Tatsuki went to integrate themselves with Ichigo's normal group of friends (that is, Keigo, Mizuiro, and Chad) rather than having lunch with their gal pals Chizuru, Kunieda the class rep, and Michiru. Secondly, by the time Orihime and Tatsuki met up with the boys on the roof, Ishida was sitting nearby, not necessarily away from the group but not part of it particularly.

Tatsuki threw a rather sharp glare in Ishida's direction, and as usual the Quincy didn't flinch. She then turned said glare onto Ichigo, who to her satisfaction did squirm a little bit. "And what's he doing here, Ichigo?"

"I invited him over to eat with us," Ichigo replied, his voice calm despite the small bead of sweat sliding down the back of his neck. "He accepted, at least after he heard that Keigo was treating us. That's all there is to it."

Tatsuki rolled her eyes, but she knew what he was getting at. He'd been given the job of watching Ishida and if that meant being all buddy-buddy with him then that's what he planned on doing. She sat down, and Orihime followed suit, pulling out their food and beginning to eat as well.

Keigo's eyes darted nervously between everyone present, as between Ichigo's normal sullen scowl, Ishida's neutral expression, Tatsuki's glare, and Orihime's refusal to look at anything aside from her food, the atmosphere was almost oppressively heavy.

Ichigo broke the unbearable silence with a question, directed very idly at Tatsuki. "So, why'd you come up here to hang out?"

"The girls wouldn't stop gossiping about what might've happened downstairs, with those windows and everything," Tatsuki mumbled around a piece of bread. "It was getting a little annoying, so I decided to come and hang out with you instead. Orihime just followed me, is all."

Ichigo nodded once, grunting in acknowledgement of what she really meant. She probably wanted to pull his ear about something regarding what had happened yesterday, and was waiting until lunch was done to pull him off to the side and ask him. He didn't blame her, to be honest, but it wasn't going to happen with Keigo and Mizuiro there and he couldn't make either of them just leave.

"You wanna hang out after school today?" he asked her. "It's been a while since we got together and since exams are over we can relax a bit. Don't you think so?"

Tatsuki shrugged, and then nodded. "Sure, why not. Where do you wanna meet up?"

"Right at the gates, after school. I have to go home and check up on something first, though, so you'll have to walk back with me if you don't want to wait."

Keigo had been quick to perk up at mention of hanging out, and now that a date and time were set, he was in full-on "get in on the action" mode. "Ooh, Ichigo, can I come along too?"

"No."

Tears began to flow down Keigo's face. "What? Am I not cool enough for you now, Ichigo? Is that it? Huh?"

Before he could get much louder, Ichigo smacked the back of his head, causing him to pitch forward and smack onto the roof with his face. "No, it's because you're gonna run around being dramatic like that, and that'll set my old man off, and then my headache will be twice as large as your bruises."

Keigo's voice was shaky from the shock of the blow and muffled by the fact that his face was still planted into the roof. "What bruises?"

"The ones I'll give you for setting my old man off," Ichigo replied nonchalantly, and Keigo began to cry even more.

Ishida simply watched all of these goings-on with a puzzled frown on his face.

_If this is what it means to be Kurosaki's friend I think I'll be fine being an acquaintance._

* * *

**3:30 PM**

When school was out, Ichigo lingered at the gates, leaning against a nearby wall with a sigh. Since exams were over, all he really had left to do was worry about some piddling summer assignments. Knowing Soul Society, he'd have to get them done between now and the 20th so that he could have time to train, though since he hadn't seen, or gotten any messages from, Rukia he didn't know anything about what was going to come next.

Before he could continue on that train of thought, though, Tatsuki, Orihime, and Chad all came through the gate, their strides calm and unhurried. Ichigo pushed himself off the wall, hands still in pockets, and looked his friends over casually.

"So, what's up?" he asked. "If it's about your powers, I haven't heard anything from Soul Society yet and I haven't seen Rukia to ask her about what she knows."

Tatsuki grimaced a bit and folded her arms. "Well, all of this was just yesterday, that's only natural. No, actually, I wanted to ask you about that Urahara guy." She rubbed her bicep suddenly, and Ichigo's eyes narrowed.

"I'm not going to get him to take it off, Tatsuki. And don't even think about asking me to take you to him so that he can do it for you. He's got his own problems to be concerned about right now."

In response, Tatsuki raised an eyebrow and frowned. "What? Why'd you think about something like that?"

Ichigo sighed and began to walk off towards his bike. "You just rubbed the armband, didn't you? I'm not blind."

"Well, yeah, but that's because the stupid thing chafes like you wouldn't believe!"

Despite herself, Orihime couldn't help but daintily clear her throat. "Tatsuki-chan, mine doesn't really bother me at all."

"Mine neither," Chad said.

Tatsuki rounded on them with a pout. "Whose side are you on, damn it?"

Ichigo felt his phone buzzing in his pocket, and he groaned as he fished it out to look at the screen.

_Ichigo—_

_Remember, you start your training with Lieutenant Hinamori tomorrow. I heard from Renji that the Captains and Lieutenants won't be meeting until tomorrow morning, and once they do they'll be bound to take a while, so until she gets out of the meeting we'll go out into a training spot I know of in the Rukongai._

_As for your friends, Captain Ukitake tells me that what's happened to them hasn't been dealt with very often, so the decision is really up to the 46 like Lieutenant Hinamori said. In those earlier cases, the humans were usually allowed to live in peace as long as they didn't interfere with Reaper duties, so I think they'll be all right. But we can't afford to interact with Urahara anymore, not unless we absolutely have to. I've received no orders pertaining to him, but it's as he said—he has his own problems to be concerned about right now._

_I'll be at your house by 6 PM for patrol._

_Rukia_

Ichigo couldn't help but laugh at her choice of words regarding Urahara, but he did at least keep it quiet enough that the others didn't stare. Of course, they were already looking his way so it was kind of a moot point, but still.

"Bad news, Tatsuki," he said, keeping his back turned to them. "The captains are gonna have a meeting tomorrow, but they can't decide anything about whatever's going to happen to you guys. At least I don't think so." He heard the sharp sound of Tatsuki sucking a tooth and shrugged as he pulled his bike off of the rack and slung himself over it. "Their hands are tied, you know. It's just like Urahara told you—the Central 46 is like the Diet, and the Gotei 13 is just the army. They're somewhat independent of one another, but strictly speaking the 46 can give the Gotei any orders that they want. It's probably going to take time for them to come to a decision, and when they do the Gotei will tell me what's going on."

"This wait is driving me nuts, Ichigo," Tatsuki replied, crossing her arms. "And, I don't know, I just feel…more tense because of it. Like there's something in me that's practically dying." She closed her eyes. "Even with this thing on, I can still see ghosts, you know? And now it feels like there are lights…really dim ones…shining in my head, whenever I close my eyes. Even when I don't, there's something…several things…pulling at me."

"I feel the same way," Orihime added, and Ichigo, already looking at both of them with concern, felt his eyes narrow. "And I see spirits too. There were one or two flying overhead on my way to school this morning." She could still smell Ichigo's scent as well, but she wasn't going to say that to his face, especially not with Tatsuki and Chad standing right there.

Chad simply nodded.

Ichigo sighed. "Well, the lights and the pulling…those might be Spiritual Energies from other people. Everyone has a little bit, but you have to cross a certain point before you can start sensing them. Looks like even with those bands on you've crossed that threshold." Rubbing his face, he tried to not think about what exactly this meant. If they weren't allowed to keep their powers, they would likely need stronger Bands. However, they couldn't turn into souls, and so they weren't likely to need to meet Kurotsuchi. Unfortunately, the act of getting Kurotsuchi to adjust the armbands would mean that he would want to see their powers firsthand, and that would mean he might come to see them in person or find some way to bring them over to Soul Society and—

"Hey! Ichigo! What're you doing? Quit zoning out!"

Tatsuki's knuckle-to-the-forehead broke Ichigo out of his stupor, and he brushed her hand off in annoyance. "Cut that out! No need to go around punching people!"

Tatsuki huffed and started to walk away, stiff-legged and unflinching. "Whatever. Listen, Ichigo. When you hear back from those guys, stop by my place or give me a call. In the meantime I'm gonna be busy doing homework."

"You mean we'll be," Orihime said, following behind her. "All I have to do at home is unpack things, and that's boring."

"You're still unpacking? Why didn't you say so? Let's go to your place then and finish up!"

"W-well, if you insist…."

As the two girls headed off, Ichigo looked at Chad, who simply shrugged his shoulders to adjust his backpack. "I have to practice for a gig later," he said to Ichigo. "Call me, too, when the news breaks. See you."

Ichigo nodded as Chad turned away and began walking. "Yeah, see ya."

Once the big guy was gone, Ichigo grunted and sighed before pedaling off. As he began to rush down the sidewalks, he instinctively reached out with his sixth sense and noticed with satisfaction that he could still feel Orihime, Chad, and Tatsuki, if faintly, even when he got outside what he had been calling his maximum range of sensing.

_So I am getting better. _He frowned. _But they are too. Dammit, that clown-faced weirdo's doing a pretty good job at failing at his job._

* * *

**Soul Society, Seireitei: One of Kurotsuchi's Labs**

A loud sneeze echoed throughout the pristine and well-kept walls of the room as Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi poured something not very stable into a flask, causing his hand to jitter and add more of the material than he meant to.

The resultant explosion shook most of the ground around the Twelfth Division, and gibbering curses could be heard over the loudspeakers that Kurotsuchi had wired into his labs just in case he needed to call for something during an experiment.

"_NEMU, YOU BLASTED FOOL GIRL! BRING ME—get off, get off, get __**OFF**_ _you blasted thing, goddamn you—FIRE EXTINGUISHERS! AND THE FLAMETHROWERS! BRING THEM THIS INSTANT!"_

* * *

**Saturday, July 17th, 11:30 AM**

**Soul Society, Seireitei: First Division Barracks, Captains' Meeting Room**

For the second time in the last few months, the captains and lieutenants of the Gotei 13 were assembled as a group of twenty-six. To all assembled, though, it felt as if this had been their fourth or fifth meeting, especially since it was rare that the captains, let alone their lieutenants as well, had to gather more than once or twice a year.

Ichigo Kurosaki, for good or ill, had made their lives much busier, even when all he was trying to do was do his job.

From his seat, Captain-General Yamamoto stroked his beard in thought, and rapped his cane on the floor. Directly at his left side, his lieutenant, Sasakibe, sat in seiza. Then, much like they had been seated during Ichigo's first meeting with the captains and lieutenants, all of the odd-numbered captains sat in front of him, on his left side, in ascending order, while the even-numbered ones were on his right in the same order. With the exception of a rather grouchy-looking Captain Kurotsuchi, they were all placid, waiting for Yamamoto to speak.

"I trust that all of you have already read Lieutenant Hinamori's written report of the events that took place yesterday," the Captain-General said; everyone nodded. "Therefore we're going to get right to the heart of the matter and start discussing the most salient points. First is the matter of these humans with powers. Lieutenant Hinamori's quick actions have most likely prolonged any trouble we may have with them, but there is now the matter of how they will be dealt with should the 46 choose to leave them alone."

"First and foremost we need to discover what exactly it is that their powers do to Hollows," Kurotsuchi replied. The other captains and lieutenants looked at him, half-curious but half-weary. They hadn't expected Kurotsuchi to speak first, as he never expressed any interest in anything unless science could somehow be applied to it—which explained quite handily why he had done so this time. "If they're like the Quincy then I'm going to need to modify the bands that I gave them. They're not meant to outright halt the flow of Spiritual Particles like the Quincy's is."

"And how do you propose to find out just what it is that their powers do, Captain Kurotsuchi?" Unohana asked gently, smiling as usual. "Hopefully you won't be tempted to methods that are too…in depth." Something in her expression became _cold_. "They are but children, after all."

Kurotsuchi sneered, but silently cursed the drops of sweat sliding down his back. "I'm well aware of that, thank you. No, I was planning on sending Nemu to the town to reconnoiter and observe. Assuming, of course, that the 46 decides to leave the humans alone."

"Speaking of that Quincy, sir," Kyouraku said, adjusting his hat as he turned to look at Yamamoto, "are you certain that the 46 won't order a kill on him? He's still a human, so he has no Soul Sleep or Binding Chain to target, but his powers have been sealed regardless."

"He is the only Quincy left. Assuming that we ensure that he does not pass on any technique in the living world or here in Soul Society, we can be certain that when he is reincarnated into the human world, the Quincy techniques will die with him." The Captain-General straightened slightly in his seat. "However, if the 46 orders it, he will be executed."

The reactions in the room were mixed. Kyouraku, Ukitake, and Unohana frowned. Isane and Kiyone gave each other rather concerned looks, but said nothing. The others seemed uninterested or unaffected by the announcement; regardless of their feelings, though, they all knew that Yamamoto's words, blunt as they were, were spoken more of duty than any real misplaced feelings towards the Quincy.

"Now, the next order of business," Yamamoto said, breaking the tense silence. "Dealing with Kisuke Urahara." Anyone that recognized the name stiffened or grew even more serious; those that didn't simply schooled their faces into professional neutrality. "As both a former captain and the founder of the Soul Reaper Research and Development program, he's not a man to be trifled with lightly. I have no doubts that once the Central 46 pass down their judgement, they will be pushing for us to either bring him in or kill him. The only problem is how exactly we are going to do that."

"Can we consider using Kurosaki-kun and Officer Kuchiki as investigative agents?" Aizen asked, frowning pensively as he addressed the Captain-General and his other colleagues. "They have access to Urahara, do they not? Surely they would be able to tell us what points are least defensible in his home base."

"But Urahara has likely considered that already," Komamura said, his voice echoing from within his helmet. "If he has not moved his base of operations yet, he most certainly will if Officer Kurosaki, or Officer Kuchiki, stops by there far too often. He does not have the advantage of knowing the terrain, in part because Officer Kurosaki has lived in that town for all of his life, but he does still have his intellect to fall back on."

Soifon knit her fingers together and placed her thumbs on her lips. "Stealth forces might be our best bet here. I am well aware that Urahara had some training with the Stealth Forces due to his position with Yoruichi Shihouin, and that could make it difficult to approach him with a stealth attack if he's willing to consider it as one of our avenues of assault. Still, it's not as direct as just charging him, so I would tentatively say that it would be more successful if we planned it out very carefully."

The older captains felt their respect for Soifon rise just slightly. They knew from the way that she had behaved around Urahara when he was still a member of the Gotei 13 that when it came to Urahara, she was not quite what you would call objective. That she had managed to present this plan without letting even the slightest amount of her own displeasure regarding the man show was a mark of her professionalism.

Yamamoto simply turned in her direction, and grunted. "Then for now, we will consider that as our first option. As I determine others, they will be communicated to you." He then faced the group in general. "Are there any other matters that anyone would like to propose before we break for now?"

"Kurosaki-kun's training does concern me slightly, sir," Ukitake said. "Not that it's going poorly, considering Lieutenant Hinamori's report, but he's already stated that his summer break will start on the twentieth of July. That's three days from now. Have we worked out how exactly we can challenge a rookie that basically purified a Menos with one attack? What will the schedule be like for his sessions with the captains and lieutenants? Should we consider having more of us step in to teach him?"

The room fell mostly silent after that, if only because the question was a good one. It wasn't that it hadn't been given thought, but at the very least the logistics hadn't been discussed between the captains even unofficially.

Of course, none of that meant that Yamamoto didn't have an answer to the question already.

"We will follow the cycle we established when Officer Kurosaki received his powers," Yamamoto began. "However, the period of rotation will not be a week, but a day. Following his training with Lieutenant Hinamori this weekend, he will begin training with Captain Zaraki and the Eleventh Division on either the twentieth or the twenty-first. The next day, he will train with Lieutenant Ise and Lieutenant Hinamori. On the day after that, he will go to Captain Soifon. After that, the cycle will start over and repeat until he returns to school." He straightened in his seat and opened his eyes slightly. "I do not believe he needs more trainers, but I do believe that he will need to get a better understanding of what the divisions do individually, and of their philosophies. To that end, I want him to spend part of his time each day with different divisions, doing the work expected of seated and unseated officers wherever his aid is needed."

"So he's effectively going to be an aide, whenever he's not training," Hitsugaya said, leaning forward slightly to compensate for his lack of height. "And in the process, he'll come to understand Soul Society and the Seireitei much better." He nodded. "It's a good plan, sir."

Yamamoto closed his eyes once more, and seemed to relax considerably. "Most importantly, it will help him familiarize himself with the faces he'll be likely seeing once he comes to Soul Society full-time. It should also start to appease those that want to meet the growing legend themselves and not just hear stories about him."

The female captains and lieutenants in the room shared brief glances between each other. Though the Menos incident was a bit too recent for much to start happening, the ears of the Soul Reapers' Women's Association were sharp, and had picked up on the growing increase in Ichigo's popularity amongst female Soul Reapers. And where a male Soul Reaper had increasing popularity (which would only become more true as Ichigo became more visible around Seireitei), the Women's Association had a chance to milk said popularity by making calendars, lots and lots of them—which would be laughably easy if Ichigo was hanging around all of their divisions and could probably be talked into doing a shoot or two.

Thanks to his years of experience in detecting when people were zoning out and not paying attention to him, Yamamoto managed to get a bead on the ladies' thought process, and rapped his cane to pull all attention back on him. "Now that we've covered that, I ask again. Are there other matters to be discussed at this time?"

No objections came.

"Captains and lieutenants that are training, have new plans submitted to me immediately. You are dismissed!"

* * *

**2:00 PM**

**Karakura Town, Mitsumiya: Urahara Shop**

Below the humble, everyday façade of Kisuke Urahara's shop, there were quite a few secrets hidden away from the world. Some were miracles of science that might have earned the man millions if he'd had the lack of scruples necessary to sell them publicly. Others were not necessarily bad by themselves, but in the wrong hands could be exceedingly dangerous.

And one of those secrets just happened to be useful yet eccentric—fitting its creator's personality to a tee.

Said secret, a specially constructed room, was not just under the façade of the shop but under the shop itself, and spanned an area much larger than the shop itself. Its terrain was rocky and desolate; high overhead, what appeared to be an actual sky with actual clouds framed the ceiling, and some source of light made it a never-ending daylight for anyone below the fake sky.

Today, however, the room wasn't so quiet. Every two or three seconds, a rock burst into nothing but stone chips and dust, followed by the sound of Flash Steps. If one watched closely, they would see a flash of purple hair between the exploding rocks and the Flash Steps, but other than that there was no sign of who or what was causing the disturbance in the otherwise empty training room.

It was this scene that Urahara himself stumbled onto as he hopped off the ladder that led from the shop to the room, and waited, arms folded. Soon enough, another rock exploded, and with a well-timed Flash Step, the owner of the purple hair, a dark-skinned woman of about 5'2", with sly golden eyes, appeared out of thin air behind Urahara. She was wearing a simple black sleeveless top, with a somewhat large white collar. She wore long tight black, gloves spanning from her elbows to her wrists, and her black pants, which were held up by a bundle of white cloth, were semi-baggy—loose enough for comfort but not too loose.

She had a tonfa gripped in her right hand; it was as black as her outfit, with golden-colored tips and silver trim. It was this that Urahara took notice of first, whistling lowly. "Wow, Yoruichi. Color me impressed. I haven't seen you using her in a while. And in her released state, no less! I'm impressed."

"Well, you only blew our hundred-year cover to help out a very nice but brash Deputy Reaper," she replied, though her mildly deep voice had no real rebuke in it, and was in fact teasing. "And I've been away from the battlefield for as long as we've had that cover. If things get bad, I'm going to need some help—and besides that, it's high time that Souboukon and I start to get our natural rhythm back."

"You don't seem too tired, either, from all the Flash Steps. Looks like 'Flash Goddess' hasn't quite lost her touch on that front, either."

"That's only because I've been focusing less on covering distance and more on speed, today. Tomorrow I start the stamina and endurance regimens." She draped her right arm over Urahara's shoulder, pulling the tall man down to her level so that she could nestle her chin into the crook of his neck; the end of her high ponytail came forward, draping over her shoulder and his as a result. "I'll need your help with that part."

Urahara smiled and waggled his eyebrows. "So that means hide and seek. With a prize, I'm hoping?"

Yoruichi snorted and raised her right hand to gently bonk Urahara in the head with the side of Souboukon that was closest to her hand. "Don't be such a pervert, Kisuke."

"But we haven't had any us-time for so long, now. Come on, Yoruichi, you can't keep holding out like that. It's not what we agreed to!"

"It's your fault for not getting around to making the walls for the kids' rooms thicker. You know how impressionable those young minds are. Do you want all of the progress you made with Kai over the last forty years to just go to waste by having our fun when he's within earshot?"

Urahara sighed and shook his head. "You're breaking my heart here, Yoruichi. Surely you still love me enough to oblige me on this, hm? Or has your heart grown cold to me? Is there another man? How long have you been seeing each other?"

She snorted and pulled away from him, but her smile and her eyes gave away her mirth at the weak teasing. "Fine, then. Help me out tomorrow and I'll consider giving you this so-called reward."

"It's a deal," Urahara replied, expanding his previous smile to a wide grin. "Would you mind a little company in the meantime, though?"

Yoruichi's smile became a smirk as she bent her knees, getting into a runner's ready position. "Not at all."

She kicked off the ground and disappeared into a blur of Flash Steps; moments later, a rock about seven or nine feet away broke into smithereens, and Urahara sat down, fanning himself with a small smile as he watched her pulverize the stones with her bare hands.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Well, now that that's done with, we can start looking at the final arc for First Semester, Soul Society. Though I have the basic events lined up I'm currently trying to decide how safely I should play it in terms of what's going to happen. Suffice it to say for now that what I do might have some of you thinking "aha, I knew it!" if I choose to progress the way that I'm thinking about doing it._

_As it turns out, Ichigo takes a bus to school in canon. (The manga makes mention of it once. I never knew this.) Which makes sense, I guess, but that sort of renders all those scenes of him heading home by bike kind of wrong. Oh well. Too late to do anything about it now, so pardon that mistake on my part, please._

_I've noticed some things through constant re-reads of the previous chapters, so I'm going to go back and fix up some more minor errors as well as the formatting of the previous chapters' location information (that bold text), so that it's consistent between chapters. I've also fixed some of Rukia's lines in the previous chapter to reflect that (1) she was in fact thinking of taking Ichigo to Kurotsuchi to get the Band fixed long before it actually did, and that she just forgot to get it done, and (2) in at least Orihime's case, Ichigo did have the Suppression Band off. Point number one did actually come up once before, but in my infinite wisdom I totally forgot to make sure I re-referenced it properly. :P_

_I want to say thank you a million times over to everyone that's reading and reviewing. Chapter 15's review section has been especially active and positive, and it's really given me a confidence boost as far as my direction for this story is concerned. What really struck me the most were the reviews complimenting my attention to detail and how well-planned out the story was. To be honest with you, I wasn't quite sure that my reasoning for a lot of what was going on was especially clear to you, the readers, and there are times when my foreshadowing of future events, or explanations for things that will come up later, is subtle enough (as in single-line or single-statement subtle) that I'm afraid that people will assume I pull things out of the air. I did my best to lay it all out in a way that made sense, though, and it seems that approach is working very well._

_Also, as a little bonus, I want to share the link to the song I had playing while writing Chad's section of the chapter, the same song he's playing on guitar. It's not really a Mexican song, and I'm well aware that Spanish or Italian music is not the same as Mexican music, but it just seemed fitting. Go straight to YouTube's home page and add /watch?v=zhLIQP8GwcI to the end of the address, or look up "Garnet Sky Arranged Street Fighter EX". As the story states, the actual guitar notes are deeper than what the actual song sounds like, but it should give you a good idea._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_Souboukon—Literally, "twin cat soul". I know Yoruichi doesn't use a zanpakutou in the present day very often, if at all, but never fear. The ability will compliment her hand to hand skills very well._

_Student Review Corner:_

_All of these are from Chapter 15._

_Bookwormtiff:_ _Thanks for the thanks, I guess is the right thing to say. I was excited to break a hundred reviews myself, and that's part of why I'm so happy when it comes to writing this story these days~ Becoming president of the club might be a bit difficult, if only because a certain women's association might decide to affiliate themselves with, or possibly subsume, said club in the future. Maybe. *smile*_

_ShotgunWilly:_ _I would like to say that that's what I modeled the Getsuga Hazan after, but that's not quite the case. I came up with the idea when I saw some of Ichigo's sprites form the DS game Bleach: Dark Souls and noticed that one of his special attacks had an animation similar to…well, I'm still not telling where I got the attack from because no one wants to guess, but the hint I'll give this time is that it's related to an eastern RPG series, which started on the Super Famicom, that lets you get into the thick of the fighting. (That should be enough to give some people an idea, and I will shamelessly admit to copping the attack, right down to modifying the name, from that series. Aside from the Getsuga-ish stuff.)_

_hello I will help with the tho:_ _As far as what has changed from canon, I can say that yes, the 46 are slightly more liberal than what we have seen of their canon incarnations, as I stated in the first chapter's notes—it was a liberty I felt I had to take in order to get anywhere with the story, and if anyone finds fault with that, I apologize. However, if you read the first chapter carefully enough you will see that their decision regarding Ichigo was not necessarily full-on kindness. (The hint is very subtle, a one-off line or two, but it is there.) Regarding the whole "soul destruction" thing, I will point out that anime has liked to spit in the face the laws of nature and physics since its inception and probably won't get around to following either of them anytime soon._

_The Sinful:_ _Because I read fan-translated manga more often than official releases I tend to gravitate towards the Japanese terms for certain things and the English for others. Mostly it depends on which sounds more impressive (Hakuda, for instance, translates as "white hits", which is kind of weird to drop in casual conversations in my opinion) and/or takes less effort to remember to use consistently. When it comes to technique names, on the other hand, I prefer to follow the standard that the manga and anime set, in that most times they use the Japanese name for a move. (I also happen to think that Getsuga Hazan sounds much more impressive than yelling Moon Fang Break Slash or choosing to Woolsey-translate it into Moon Fang Blade or something, but that's just me.)_

_Yuriski-1st:_ _I believe your own words have part of the answer to that question. You drew the example of canon Ichigo at the time he fought Renji in Soul Society, at which point he'd already trained with Urahara. Substitute School's Ichigo has had a more thorough training experience, yes, but because of how his schedule is currently set up, he's not in a position to receive the same kind of intensive, focused training in one area that canon Ichigo did from Urahara. Now that the training schedule is set to be revised, that will likely not be the case anymore, though I'm likely going to make him fight and bleed for every step of improvement as best as I can, mostly because it gives me a chance to try characterizing his trainers and partially because I can explain how I envision the mechanics of certain Reaper skills to function._

_Hannibal221:_ _Pairings, pairings. Well, I can say at some point, some elements of romance will work their way into the story—if not this one, then definitely Second Semester. Thing is, I do want to do them, yes, but I would like to do them right, and not overtake the story with it—this has largely been adventure with touches of humor and I'd like to keep it that way. As to whether or not they'll be the pairings you would prefer to see, I make no promises—and I will warn all readers, past or future, that any flames over whatever pairings might come into play will be ignored or reported. Preferences are preferences, and people can support whatever pairings they like to, but it's not fair to criticize a work over something as simple as choosing to make Ichigo and Orihime a couple over Ichigo and Rukia. Criticize the way it happened? Sure, if you feel that the romance itself was written badly, it's only fair that you say so respectfully. But the actual pairing being to your dislike is not really a reason to say a story sucks, and I won't tolerate that behavior if it appears in reviews._

_Xha:_ _Thank you for the kind words. Really, the matter of Ishida's actions having some sort of fallout was something I've heard brought up in discussion before, mostly in the vein of 'somehow it seems Soul Society never bothered to find out what caused it'. From the moment I began to plan how the Hollow hunt was going to end, I knew that actually figuring out what was going to happen to Ishida and what his actions resulted in had to come up at some point. It's good to know that I managed to do it right._

_And with these two down, I'll see you in August with Lessons 17 and 18. I am considering speeding up my update schedule to finish things up, as a thank-you to everyone that's read and reviewed so much, but we'll have to see how stuck I get on whatever comes next before I can decide that. If the schedule is not accelerated, we're looking at a finish by maybe December of this year or January of the next. Either way, once I'm done, I'll be taking a short break from fanfiction writing while I decide what's going to come next. It'll be my hope to come back and do Second Semester so that the Arrancar get their time to shine, too, but that's still dependent on a number of factors in my real life, and I do have another two plot bunnies that I really would like to get around to writing at some point._

_Till next class._

_~ZS_

_(EDIT—7/14/11—I had to fix a few things I noticed after re-reading. Namely, Yoruichi's height as compared to Urahara's? Yeah, she's not tall enough to reach his shoulder without him crouching down a bit. I am now in the process of looking for a beta reader.)_


	17. Lesson 17: Improving Performance 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 17: Improving Performance 101, or Battle, Get Better, Get Bested_

* * *

**Saturday, July 17th, 2:00 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Fifth Division Barracks **

As Yoruichi furthered her physical skills, Ichigo was taking some time to show off his improved Kidou skills to Lieutenant Hinamori, Rukia, and Captain Aizen.

Much like the Seventh Division, the Fifth had a special area set aside for indoor training, and by the time Ichigo and Rukia got there, the dummies were out and waiting on the wooden floor. Again, like the Seventh's, it had the feel of an old, storied dojo, except that the walls and floor were a paler color than the Seventh's earthy tan, and no natural light was to be found, coming solely from what looked like ceiling lamps to Ichigo.

With Hinamori as a willing participant, he demonstrated quick, efficient casts of Push, Restrain, and Crawling Rope, though Hinamori, being the Kidou expert she was, broke them without too much effort. Then the dummies were pulled out of storage, and Ichigo slightly pierced (but thankfully, didn't blow apart) all of them with a few White Lightning spells, reduced to half power by a lack of incantation.

Hinamori nodded and smiled. "Good, Kurosaki-kun. Now, can you show me Bound Lightning?"

Ichigo nodded and walked over to one of the dummies and put a hand on it, then took a slow, steady breath as he channeled his Spiritual Pressure and concentrated on the image that he needed for the spell, a burst of electricity that surged forward and out of him. When he felt a buzzing sensation at the base of his neck, he declared, "Hadou 11, Bound Lightning," and a yellow arc of electricity flowed down the arm gripping the dummy and rattling it violently, though again (much to Rukia's immense relief) it didn't do much more than that.

Once the technique was done, Hinamori examined the dummy with one hand on her chin. "You did throttle the power quite a bit, I see. Did you try putting more power into it when you practiced on your own?"

"Rukia gave me a day off yesterday so I didn't have anything to practice on," Ichigo said, letting go of the dummy. "I figured it would be better to play it safe so that I didn't get shards of wood stuck into my face."

Aizen chuckled from where he stood behind them, observing everything casually. "We make these quite resilient, Kurosaki-kun. I doubt a misfired spell could actually break one that badly."

"All due respect, sir, you didn't see me put one of these through a wall with a Thrust spell. I broke the post it was attached to and when I went to look at it, one of the arms was broken off."

"You did what?" Rukia said, aghast. "I hope you offered to pay for it!"

Ichigo crossed his arms and deepened his scowl. "I didn't get any payouts for anything except Shrieker, Grand Fisher, and maybe that Menos from the other day, and I'm pretty sure that Fisher was been a two-way split between us. How the hell was I supposed to pay for it?"

Rukia shook her head. "We have heard of the concept of down payments here, Ichigo, just so you know."

Ichigo snorted in response and turned his attention back to Hinamori. "OK, so what's next?"

"We'll work on Bound Lightning some more," Hinamori said, "but after we get these two Bakudou done." She raised her right arm, and Ichigo felt her Spiritual Pressure gather up near her hand; a blue sphere of light appeared just in front of her open palm, floating placidly. "This is Bakudou number 8, Repulse. If you push against or strike this little fellow, it'll cause you to rebound and it'll block the attack."

Ichigo tentatively reached out towards the sphere, and as Hinamori said, he felt it actively push back against his hand, forcing it away.

"No incantation for it?"

"That's correct. It's good for catching the opponent off guard and forcing an immediate turnabout, but don't expect it to last against larger or stronger attacks." She let the spell drop, and then began to concentrate her Pressure again. This time, a small ball of red light appeared at the tip of her raised pointer and middle fingers on her left hand, and she traced an intricate pattern in the air; the ball followed the motion of her fingers with a slight delay, but when she stopped, the entire symbol that she traced out flashed in red for a brief moment as her body was cloaked in similarly-colored energy.

"Bakudou number 9, Strike," she murmured, and Ichigo, distracted by the movement of the light, suddenly felt every joint in his body lock up before a haze of red seemed to filter over all of his senses.

"What the hell—?"

Hinamori looked down, blushing slightly. "I'm sorry, Kurosaki-kun. I needed a target to demonstrate it on, and I also wanted you to try breaking a spell. I didn't think you would mind if I just went ahead."

"It doesn't hurt to ask anyway," Ichigo replied with a groan. "Ah, whatever, it's fine. So this is a near-total paralysis spell, then?"

"Total paralysis, actually," Rukia said with a somewhat smug grin. "There's an incantation, but because Lieutenant Hinamori left it out your mouth was left alone. Otherwise your jaw might've been stiffened up too."

"Why are you smiling like that anyway, Rukia?"

"Oh, I just remembered what happened when you tried to break my Crawling Rope a few days back." She began to snicker actively now. "Hopefully you won't repeat what you did to that policeman phone stand."

Ichigo's face became redder than his hair. "That was a fluke, dammit! I know what I'm doing this time! There's no way in hell I'm going to blow up anything!"

Rukia's arms folded, and she jerked her head at him. "Prove it."

Ichigo took a deep breath through his nostrils and concentrated on the Pressure binding him, much like he had when Rukia wrapped her Crawling Rope around him. However, unlike last time, when he'd focused his considerably-dense Spiritual Pressure not on his bonds but on the environment around him (specifically, on a policeman's phone booth, which was then crushed by the force near-instantly), he concentrated on himself, and made it radiate outwards from himself, pushing against the Strike spell's Pressure.

Rukia's teasing smile shrank to a genuinely warm one as she saw that Ichigo had indeed learned his lesson. He was slowly eroding Hinamori's binding with his own Pressure, instead of trying to force it all off at once. If he was better at controlling his power he would have likely been able to break it in one burst, but that might have resulted in some damage to the floor and the walls ("some damage" being equivalent to a nice, foot-deep crater in the wood).

In a little over two minutes, the Strike spell was gone completely, leaving Ichigo to grunt and groan in pain as he shook out his sore limbs. "There, all broken out of. Satisfied?"

Hinamori tapped her chin in thought, re-analyzing what she'd observed, before looking upwards at Ichigo. "It was somewhat slower than I was hoping it would be, but yes, I am, considering the somewhat absurd levels of Spiritual Pressure you were putting out when you killed that Menos. Between now and our next session, though, I want you to keep practicing. You need to get faster by the time we start to cover spells like Red Fire Cannon; I expect you to be able to break single-level spells with one short, quick burst of Pressure." She turned to Rukia. "Kuchiki-san, I'm counting on you to push him harder. I know that he can get faster."

Rukia's smirk came back in full force as she bowed shortly at Hinamori. "It'll be my pleasure, ma'am."

While Ichigo glared at Rukia, Aizen gently cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention back to him once more. "You've been at this a while, Kurosaki-kun," he said, smiling gently. "I think perhaps a lunch break is in order. I know of a place in Seireitei not too far from here that serves very nice fish and beef, and Hinamori and I stop by there often for food when we're working late. Would you like to try it?"

"If that's all right with the Lieutenant," Ichigo replied, and Hinamori smiled, nodding. "Then sure. Let's go."

The moment that the four-man group stepped out of the training room, though, they saw that a number of people from the Fifth Division were clustered around the door, presumably listening to most of the conversation or trying to sense the Spiritual Pressures of the people within, particularly Ichigo.

Aizen blinked. "Why, what's all this?"

Ichigo had time to blink once or twice before the flash of a camera went off in his face and he was pulled into a rough one-armed embrace by one of the Reapers. Several more surrounded him, and in his dazed state Ichigo could see and hear more shots being taken before a wave of whooshing Flash Steps overtook his ears. When he came back to himself, only he, Aizen, Hinamori, and Rukia were there in the hallway, and all three of them had the same stupidly dumbfounded look that was on his face.

"Someone mind explaining to me what the hell that was?" Ichigo asked, slowly looking between the faces of the three other people standing alongside him.

"Looked like a photo opportunity," Rukia said at last. "Maybe they were just members of the forces that were there when you got rid of that Menos and wanted a picture."

The truth, of course, was a bit less straightforward than that. Though Ichigo had pulled plenty of interest on his own merits, at the end of the day the Women's Association needed some photos to at least get an advertisement out in the Seireitei Communication magazine for this month, which hadn't come out as of yet. What had just happened hadn't been sanctioned by the Association, at least not as far as Hinamori or Rukia knew, but there was no doubt in Rukia or Hinamori's minds that whoever had just taken those pictures could be convinced to sell a few copies to the Women's Association for the purpose of said ad, before the serious photo-taking effort began.

Ichigo, of course, couldn't see these cogs turning in the ladies' heads, and Aizen didn't seem to notice it either, saying, "I thought I was sensing something outside of the room earlier, which means that they were waiting that entire time for this opportunity. My goodness, Kurosaki-kun, you're most certainly a popular fellow."

Of course, Ichigo's empty stomach took that particular moment as the best one to declare "screw popularity and give me food, dammit" with a loud, rumbling growl. At the very least, Ichigo managed to look somewhat embarrassed as he looked down at the offending organ.

"Yeah, that lunch? …Would be nice right about now."

Rukia kicked him in the back of the leg. "You're being rude again! Stop that!"

"OW!"

* * *

**2:15 PM**

**Seireitei, Nakamura Grill**

The walk to Nakamura Grill was a fairly short one; Flash Stepping for most of the way helped out on that end, but as Ichigo and Rukia weren't as skilled with the technique or as familiar with the area, walking had been necessary in order to keep the group together for the home stretch.

The grill itself was much like a stand or a stall that one might find at a summer festival. With an open front, it was easy to see over the counter where the customers ate and into the back where the grilling went on, but the shop itself was as neat as could be expected of an open-air establishment. It was run by Junichi Nakamura, a long-retired Reaper; his son and daughter, Tetsuya and Mai, pulled double duty as waiter/waitress and cashier(s), while he handled the majority of the cooking.

Perched on one of the stools in front of the dining counter, Ichigo was in fact enjoying the grilled salmon he'd ordered very, very much. Beside him, Rukia neatly ate the beef she'd ordered, while Hinamori and Aizen sipped at their tea and water respectively.

"This place is awesome," Ichigo murmured between bites. "Definitely gonna come back here."

Rukia, obviously much more polite about the way she was going about her food, nodded in agreement once she stopped chewing. "Yes. The quality of this beef is excellent—well-seasoned and well-cooked. It's absolutely delicious."

"Glad you think so," said Tetsuya behind the counter, grinning. His black hair was short and spiky, and his hands were wrapped in a fresh pair of bandages up to just below the elbows. "Sis and I worked hard on learning the old man's recipes, and he used to whack our fingers with a spatula whenever we screwed up."

"It wasn't even but a love tap, you spineless brat," yelled the old man in question from the kitchen area. "Quit yer whining and just serve the Captain and his guests, you hear?"

Tetsuya sighed and rubbed his face against his palm, sighing. "I'm not whining, Dad. And they've already been served, or don't you remember me bringing them their food already?"

"Boy! That mouth of yours is gonna get you a whole lot of pain in a hot minute!"

"Don't mind him," Tetsuya said to the group of Reapers, shaking his head, as his sister came out from the back to get a broom and sweep around the front. "He likes to yell a lot but it's for show."

"He also has the big tenderizer out of the drawer back there, Tetsu, so if I were you I'd stop with the jokes before he gets annoyed enough to use it on that piece of meat you call a head," Mai added as she stepped outside. Tetsuya froze for a minute, and then sighed, going back to check the register while Aizen finished off his water and looked towards Ichigo.

"Kurosaki-kun, there's been something I've been meaning to discuss with you," the Captain said. "You see, the captains have agreed to shuffle you around between the divisions so that you get a feel for what it's like to be a normal Reaper, and the Captain-General wants you to understand the philosophy behind each division's personal symbols."

Ichigo blinked, wondering why exactly Aizen was bringing this up now of all times, but said nothing, allowing Aizen to continue.

"I know it seems like an odd time to bring it up, but I was just thinking about your situation. You've given up a lot of time for all of this training, put yourself into dangerous situations without hesitation, and you bear it all a lot more gracefully than most people would. More importantly, you're aware that as far as you've come, you still have much to learn. In other words, you're humble and self-sacrificing, to a reasonable extent—two qualities that embody the Fifth Division's emblem, the lily of the valley, very well." The Captain smiled once more in his usual gentle way. "It's important for a Soul Reaper to be able to endure the burden of sacrifice, whether they were the ones to make one or whether they benefited from one. One must also be able to face danger without fear, and be humble so that they understand both themselves and their own abilities to the fullest. So long as you continue to display those qualities, then you will make a fine Soul Reaper."

The generous praise was enough for even Ichigo to feel embarrassed. "U-Um, thanks. Really, though, I'm just doing what I have to do. It's not that big a deal."

Aizen simply continued to smile. "Well, if that's how you feel, I won't argue with you. I just wanted to let you know how I felt."

Ichigo pulled his eyes up from his plate to look at the Captain briefly before nodding. Hinamori and Rukia shared small smiles of their own before returning to their food and drink.

That clear, unwavering resolve of his would make the Women's Association very, very rich when it came time for photo operations.

* * *

**Wednesday, July 21, 12 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Eleventh Division Barracks**

The last two days of school had gone by rather quickly for Ichigo. With nothing noteworthy happening amongst his friends or in regards to Ishida, the Deputy Reaper had been given plenty of time to handle his schoolwork so that when the time came to fulfill his obligations with Soul Society, he'd be able to do it without real life bogging him down.

Neither he nor Rukia had heard anything from, or regarding, Urahara, and in some ways that too was a relief. It assured Ichigo that the man was taking care of his own business perfectly fine, and also led Ichigo to think that the Gotei weren't going to be too suspicious of what might have really gone down between him, Rukia, and the exiled shopkeeper.

The 46's decision about his friends was to come down in a few days, according to what Ukitake had told Rukia, and by proxy, what she told Ichigo, on the twentieth. By Friday, the last vestiges of the "Big Hunt" (as it had been called by the Reapers that were there) would be dealt with.

As Ichigo set foot on the Eleventh Division's grounds on that Wednesday, he didn't know quite what to feel about that decision. Though none of his friends had been pestering him with questions, he could still feel Tatsuki and Orihime looking at him when they thought he wasn't paying attention, especially whenever they decided to hang around with Ichigo's group at lunchtime and noticed that Ishida was still there, though the Quincy only participated in any conversation to poke fun at Keigo or Ichigo like mostly everyone else. Ichigo knew that the suspense was killing both of them, even if they were doing a good job of hiding it, because it was killing him, too.

The girls, and Chad, had been drawn into this world of fighting and surviving, even if just a little bit. Ishida, at least, did it on purpose with the full understanding of what it meant. His friends, though, had just been accidents. And though he knew he was stronger than he had been when his mother died five years ago, and though he had promised Karin that he wouldn't let there be any more victims, he still harbored that fear of failure.

_They had a taste of power, and I'm sure they'll want to use it to help me somehow. Inoue's just that kind of nice person, Tatsuki's a fighter, and Chad would die before he forgot that promise to watch my back. But they didn't ask for this. They should just live their lives in peace._

Both the weight of the Spiritual Pressures around him and Rukia's firm tugging on his sleeve woke Ichigo from his thoughts.

"You can't get distracted this time," Rukia said to him, while facing the battlefield in front of her that was the Eleventh Division's sparring field. Her voice was barely audible amongst the sounds of swords clashing and people yelling and screaming that were just beginning to filter into Ichigo's ears. "I'll be practicing here, too, so I won't be in the greatest condition to patch you up if you get hurt."

Ichigo paled at the mention of losing his only healing ticket amongst this insanity. "Wait, what? You're gonna be training too? What for?"

"Swordsmanship is my weakest skill, to be wholly honest with you," Rukia replied. "Whatever edge I have over you in our training comes solely from my experience, and even that gap is beginning to shrink because of how frequently we practice against each other. You may not know it just from fighting against me, but you're becoming much stronger, so I have to become stronger too. It's a natural progression."

Though he was still nervous about her decision, the rationale was perfect and sensible, and it wasn't like it was his place to tell her not to do it. "All right then. But if I can't be careless, neither can you. Don't these guys hate Kidou and stuff? That means you won't be able to heal yourself up or they'll make fun of you."

Rukia snorted. "Like that scares me."

It was then that Kenpachi rushed by, laughing rather crazily, as he gripped a man's face with the entirety of one hand while slashing away wildly at anyone in range of his chipped, worn zanpakutou. The Captain's Spiritual Pressure was amped up fairly high, and though his ragged-edged coat and black robes were dusty and dirty, he was scratched and cut all over, bleeding freely.

"Now that's more like it, maggots!" he yelled, his voice booming and clear. "About time more of you bastards finally got around to cutting me for once! Goddamn!"

"That, on the other hand," Rukia said, her face paling rapidly as she watched Zaraki use the man in his hand as a makeshift club and shield against other attackers, "definitely does."

A laugh came from the right side, and Ichigo and Rukia turned to see a bald Reaper sauntering up to them. His eyes were narrow and sharp, and red markings decorated the skin near the corners of his eyes. "That's Captain Zaraki for you. Don't worry, he's not gonna challenge you until there's a good chance you'll live through the ass-beating." The newcomer then grinned. "Mind you, it's not because he's a nice guy or anything. It's just easier to get rematches from people that are still breathing."

"Not comforting," Ichigo said. "Anyway, who are you again? Don't remember seeing you around here before."

The bald man crossed his arms. "Your memory's pretty shitty, huh, kid? Ikkaku Madarame, third seat of the Eleventh. I had to help your little girlfriend over here drag your unconscious ass to the Fourth after Yachiru beat it into a paste, since saving you wore her out so badly."

Ichigo's body began to ache all over at mention of Yachiru's name and the savage beating that the lieutenant had given him. "You're lucky I even remember what happened at all." Then he blinked as another part of Madarame's words sank in. "Wait, the hell! Rukia's no one's girlfriend, especially not mine!"

"I agree with him," Rukia added stiffly, her face set in a perfect imitation of Byakuya's as she let her cold Pressure flare up. "Madarame-san, I have to ask you to be a little less careless with your words."

Ikkaku waved a hand about idly, dropping the grin for a second. "Don't get your panties in a wad, lady, you're not who I came here for anyway." He then stared Ichigo directly in the eye, drew his zanpakutou from its sheath, and pointed it at the boy's face, forcing Rukia to shuffle to the side and out of the way. With the blade directed at him this way, Ichigo could see its ovular guard, and what appeared to be teardrop-shaped decorations on said guard.

"You and me, kid. Let's go." The grin came back in full force. "Word's gotten around, you know, about the guy that took down a Menos Grande. Even if you needed a bit of help from those shitty spells, that's still pretty impressive for a greenhorn. Especially the same greenhorn that got more or less slaughtered by one of the Gotei 13's best swordswomen. I wanna see if the rumors are true!"

Despite himself, Ichigo could feel a growing sense of anticipation and ferocity building in his gut at the challenge. "Oh, is that so?" He reached behind him and drew Zangetsu clear of its sheath, causing the tassel and bead to sway gently as he guided the tip of the sword to point at the bridge of Ikkaku's nose. "All right then. Bring it on, baldy."

A vein popped to life on the right side of Ikkaku's forehead, and his Spiritual Pressure shot up, briefly cloaking him in crimson light. "If you wanna live through this, don't ever say that again." With that, he pulled his sword back, pulled his sheath from his belt sash with his right hand, and hopped back, clearly getting ready to charge. "Now shut up and let's get fighting, kid!"

Ichigo took a moment to pop off his armband and store it safely before taking up his standard stance, flaring up his Spiritual Pressure for an extra intimidation factor. "My name isn't kid—it's Ichigo Kurosaki. If you wanna live through this, don't call me 'strawberry'."

"Duly noted," Ikkaku replied, and then, he rushed, swinging sword and sheath in a sweeping X. Ichigo rushed to meet him with a quick slide forward, and Rukia took a Flash Step away as they clashed. When she came out of the high speed movement, she took a moment to look at Ichigo's back before sighing, smiling, and meeting the eyes of a man that was glaring rather disdainfully at her with his zanpakutou unsheathed.

"I suppose it wouldn't be too forward of me to ask for a match, would it?" she asked, drawing Sode no Shirayuki.

"Not at all, lady," the man replied, readying his own sword.

Ichigo grunted in satisfaction as he parried another blow from Ikkaku's sheath with his left forearm and countered with a strong right-armed elbow strike to the third seat's ribcage. Ever since blocking Ikkaku's opening strike less than a few moments ago, he had quickly abandoned any attempt to stick to his kendo stance, as the man was just too relentless and loose with attacks from both sword and sheath to throw him off balance. Given that he was slightly more comfortable with Zangetsu in his left hand than his right, Ichigo had immediately shifted to a one-hand grip, leaving his right hand open for counter assaults.

The gamble had paid off; thanks to said free hand, his counter on Ikkaku was successful, and, following the loud cracking of one of Ikkaku's ribs, the strike pushed the bald man back enough for Ichigo to follow up with a quick two-hand slash that nicked Ikkaku's shoulder. That didn't stop Ikkaku, though; the bald man's grin grew even more ferocious as he leapt back into the fray, jabbing at Ichigo with his sheath from multiple angles.

The stinging welt on Ichigo's forearm told him all he needed to know about attempting to block those strikes barehanded again, but backing up wasn't an option unless he wanted to run butt-first into someone else's fight. The grounds were rather large, yes, but with the way Ikkaku was applying pressure it would've been far too easy for Ichigo to get preoccupied with retreating. With no other options, Ichigo grimaced and attempted to duck or dodge the blows, to mixed success; his legs slid backwards as Ikkaku's thrusts struck his calves and shins, and a sudden shift from thrusting to swinging gave Ikkaku a chance to repay Ichigo's attack by smashing into the Deputy Reaper's collarbone.

"Is that all you've got, Ichigo!" Ikkaku yelled, swinging his sheath down on Ichigo's head. "Don't waste my time, dammit! I've got plenty more ass to kick today and you're keeping me from it!"

Ichigo cursed and pushed Pressure to his legs so that he could roll to the side, leaving Ikkaku wide open as the vertical swing to bust open Ichigo's skull ate nothing but air. The Deputy Reaper then leapt forward and kicked Ikkaku in the face before dropping his right elbow onto the crook of Ikkaku's left arm, jerking Ikkaku's hand up and forcing the bald man to let go of his sheath. With this opening made, Ichigo, upon landing, ducked under Ikkaku's arm and took a passing swipe at the man's chest as he moved forward.

The speed of Ichigo's movements caught Ikkaku so off guard that he didn't register what had happened until he was clutching at the bleeding, and fairly deep, diagonal slash he'd just received across the front of his upper torso, just under his collarbone. When he did, though, he let out a whoop of laughter and amped his grin up even further. "You think fast, Ichigo! Making your own openings and exploiting them just as quickly, that's pretty ballsy of you!"

_And it's a good one, too, _Ikkaku mused to himself. _This kid, he's not trying to kill me, but he's damn well serious about this fight, that's for sure. If I take another hit like that I'll be in a bad spot._

The bald man then bent down to pick up his sheath, and shook out his left arm. "But let's see if all those balls will help you deal with this!"

The bald man's Pressure began to flare again, and Ichigo immediately amped up his own, sending it into Zangetsu as he pointed his zanpakutou towards the sky. Seeing this, and sensing Ichigo's growing power, Ikkaku began to laugh once more as he slammed the hollow end of his sheath into the end of his zanpakutou's hilt. "Grow, Houzukimaru!"

Ichigo pulled Zangetsu down in a single, smooth stroke. "Rise, Zangetsu!"

Zangetsu shifted into its shikai form before the halfway point of the swing, and Ichigo began to charge as the white cloth at the base of his blade billowed out behind him. Ikkaku's Houzukimaru, in contrast, was enveloped in a white light as it grew thinner and expanded; when the light faded, the sword had taken on the form of a pole-arm with a shorter, but still single-edged, blade on the front end and a red tassel at the rear end. Ikkaku had turned from a frontal to a side stance while his release had been going on, and so now the right side of his body was facing forward, with his right hand at the front of the shaft and his left hand at the back.

Ichigo had precisely one moment to swear before Ikkaku twisted Houzukimaru so that the sharp edge of the blade was facing away from the ground, and pulled his left hand downward, while pushing his right one upward. With Houzukimaru's increased range, Ichigo, who was already close enough to get slashed or stabbed, could do nothing but attempt to rear back—and fail—as the blade ran up the length of his right arm, cutting a line that stopped just short of his shoulder and that ripped his sleeve in half.

"Damn, a spear," Ichigo muttered, barely keeping a hiss out of his voice as he let his injured arm dangle. "I got careless…."

"Yeah, no kidding," Ikkaku replied with a laugh, slowly lowering his weapon from its high position. "Still, you were quick enough to save yourself from getting a nice groove up your chest. Something like that would've put you in the Fourth for sure." He then twisted Houzukimaru again, pointing its sharp edge downwards, and began to thrust at Ichigo rapidly, leaving the boy to awkwardly deflect or dodge the attacks. Though Zangetsu wasn't heavy enough in its released state for him to need both hands, the strength of Ikkaku's blows, even when changed from slashes to stabs, was upped just enough for it to be a problem, and his other hand was practically useless if the relentless pain racing up and down it was any indication.

The end of Zangetsu's cloth fluttered in front of him as he ducked under another thrust, and the answer came to him in a flash. He switched Zangetsu to his injured hand, grabbing it high up on the handle, and quickly wrapped the cloth around the wound a few times, at the middle of his forearm; after one tight pull to make sure it would stay on, he rushed forward, keeping low.

Ikkaku, however, wasn't going to be caught off guard that easily, and though he had to hop back first, he turned Houzukimaru end over end so that the end of the shaft with the red tassel was in front, and then thrust it low, at Ichigo. Ichigo, grinning, sidestepped once more and continued rushing forward, only to be greeted by Ikkaku's foot smashing into his face, followed by a painful blunt impact on the top of his head; Ikkaku had used the opportunity given by his kick to strike Ichigo with the blunt end of Houzukimaru.

"Definitely, definitely a quick one," Ikkaku said, keeping Ichigo's head pushed into the dirt. "Your reflexes and speed are way up from what I saw when you were fighting Yachiru. Hell, as far as tracking my movements goes, you're a lot more than a rank amateur at this point." His grip on Houzukimaru tightened, and he winced only slightly as his chest and cracked rib began to burn. "It's a shame I can't see that Getsuga whatever of yours I heard about. From what I know about it, it'd make too much collateral mess in close quarters like these, and the Captain would kill ya for breaking one of the big rules right after." He then eased Houzukimaru off of Ichigo's head, finally allowing the boy to stand and spit out a few clumps of dirt and an odd strand of grass.

"You're talking like we're done here," Ichigo said, wiping his mouth with his uninjured forearm. "Don't tell me we're gonna stop when the show's barely gotten started."

"Well, from what Captain Zaraki told us you're supposed to be sparring with a lot of different people, but I'm feeling particularly selfish today so we can scratch that garbage." He got Houzukimaru back into thrusting position, and his muscles tensed for the next push. "But if you wanna quit, quit now! I'm getting a bit fired up now, so if you wait you're not gonna be able to stop me!"

Ichigo shook his head slowly. "Nah, that's not gonna happen." His brows furrowed, and a slow breath worked its way out of his nose as he readied Zangetsu in his right hand once more. "I gotta hand it to that Yachiru, even if she did beat my ass. She taught me that when you wuss out against Eleventh Division maniacs, you get even more screwed up than if you fight them from start to finish."

Ikkaku's grin grew wide once more. "Damn right. So fight! Fight until you can't even move!"

With that, the third seat unleashed his next thrust to Ichigo's right side, and Ichigo turned it aside with Zangetsu, one-handed before rushing in to strike.

"You left yourself open, Ikkaku!"

Ikkaku shook his head. "And you fell for it, Ichigo! Split, Houzukimaru!"

And the spear did precisely that.

With his adrenaline running high, Ichigo could see it all as if he were a camera playing everything in slow motion.

The shaft of Houzukimaru split apart at two separate spots, revealing links of metal chain that kept the weapon linked together. Behind him, the air rippled, as the segment of the staff with Houzukimaru's blade wrapped around him and flew at his face.

Ikkaku's face was practically split wide open by his bloodthirsty grin, and Ichigo knew then and there that this would be the last blow if he didn't do something.

Slowly, slowly, slowly, Houzukimaru drew closer and closer to his eye. Just as slowly, Ichigo moved his face away from the blade, and as it bit into the side of his face, right around his cheekbone, he reached upward with his left hand, grabbed Houzukimaru by the shaft, and flung it away before moving forward once more.

He saw Ikkaku's eyes widen in shock, and felt his own feet pounding against the dirt, his chest heaving as he ran, the warmth of the blood flowing down his cheek and chin. He saw Ikkaku's lips moving, but they were so slow, and he couldn't hear the man speak.

When Ichigo finally got close enough, he simply thrust Zangetsu forward, sharp tip first, and managed to stab Ikkaku's right shoulder clean through. But even as he did, he felt something tear his back wide open, and saw that Ikkaku's left arm was raised, and pulling Houzukimaru backwards.

_He used Houzukimaru to cut me from behind,_ Ichigo thought, and as the bloodstained blade came back into view from overhead thanks to Ikkaku's continued pulling, his theory was validated in full. Much to his satisfaction, though, Ikkaku didn't look particularly spry himself, and even as Ichigo sank to one knee, Ikkaku followed suit, dropping both ends of Houzukimaru as he clutched at his chest.

"Well, would you look at that," the bald man said, wheezing slightly, and Ichigo felt his eyelids start to flutter downwards.

Then sweet darkness claimed him.

* * *

**12:04 PM**

When Ichigo came to again, the first thing he realized, without even opening his eyes, was that the places where he'd been cut felt cool, but not stiff. With a hissing breath, he opened his eyes and saw nothing but the blue sky overhead, with floating white clouds. Once more, the sounds of combat slowly flooded his ears, and with a grunt, he slowly sat up, rubbing his face with the heels of his hands.

"Well, hey there Sleeping Beauty. About time you got up," said Ikkaku's voice. Ichigo immediately moved his hands, and saw that the bald man was sitting right in front of him, with Houzukimaru back in its sealed state and in his left hand. The slash across Ikkaku's chest, which had cut away enough of his robes to expose part of his muscular upper body, appeared to be scabbed over, but his right forearm was lying across his lap, almost limply.

"Gotta hand it to you, Ichigo. You were pulling your punches pretty well for a while there, but that last stab really got me," Ikkaku continued, chuckling. "That chest cut and that cracked rib you gave me were nastier than I gave you credit for, and for now my right arm's more or less a chunk of meat 'cause my shoulder won't move right. You sure live up to that 'one' in your name, just like me."

Ichigo grunted, ignoring the slight fuzziness in his head. It was probably from whatever blood he'd lost, and would pass soon enough, he figured, considering that the rest of him didn't feel nearly so bad, at least when compared to what Grand Fisher had done by stabbing him. "The hell does that mean?"

Ikkaku's grin came back in full force. "Men with 'one' in their names, they're said to be handsome and skilled like you wouldn't believe. After that fight, I'd have to say any asshole that calls you a strawberry is a goddamn fool." He chuckled once more. "You and me, I think we could get along just fine if you keep giving me fights like that one."

"We didn't even finish it right," Ichigo replied, casually inspecting his right forearm to see that it had scabbed over like Ikkaku's wound. "At least it feels that way, you know? Like we weren't going all-out yet. And I'm sure that if you've fought Zaraki or that Yachiru girl, you've had better fights."

Ikkaku shook his head. "That kind of fighting ain't for a place like this. Too damn crowded, like I said before, and on top of that it wasn't like we were actually trying to kill each other. We probably coulda kept going if I hadn't cut you across the back, but from how I felt when you got my shoulder I had a feeling I wasn't going to be standing much longer, so I tried to make things even." He briefly looked across the field, over the unconscious and battered bodies of other division men and women, before locking eyes on Zaraki's towering frame, surveying the rest of the division with Yachiru on his shoulder and a mountain of division members prone at his feet. "As for comparing our fight with the kinds I have with the Captain and the Lieutenant, that's just stupid. They're both ridiculously strong to begin with and they don't hold back like you do. I consider it an improvement if I can do more than blink, breathe, and croak after a brawl with one of them."

Ichigo sighed through his nose again. "I see."

"Don't take that to mean you're weak or anything," Ikkaku said, slowly getting up. "I can tell you were having a good time, too. You were restraining yourself because you didn't wanna do anything that the Fourth couldn't fix by mistake. Under normal circumstances, that would piss me off something fierce, but I can respect it because you still came at me like you meant it." He offered Ichigo his uninjured hand and the boy took it, standing up as Ikkaku pulled. "Thanks to my ointment, you're still good for a few more fights. Go on ahead and challenge a few more people. You'll probably win against anyone that ain't a single seat, and you could use the practice."

"Your ointment?" Ichigo asked, blinking, before he looked at his forearm again. "This stuff that's on my arm, you mean."

"Yeah. I keep it in Houzukimaru's hilt to help my blood clot when I get really messed up. Between my chest and your back we used a good bit of it. Didn't bother using any on my shoulder; no ointment is gonna fix that up. It's just a quick patch job over at the Fourth, though, so it's no problem." He grinned again. "Plus, I've got some more asses to kick today and I only need the one arm for the guys I'm gunning for. Long as I can still move, I don't need to head off yet."

Ichigo briefly rubbed the back of his hand against his robes, where he felt the tear in his clothing, then touched his scabbed-over cheek and looked at his slashed sleeve.

_I went toe to toe with a seated officer and pulled a draw. If I get better…no, when I get better, I'll definitely be able to win. Definitely._

"I get what you mean," he said, finally managing a cocky smile of his own. "I'll be back around here for training in a few days. You want a rematch then?"

"Hell, yeah. Just don't be a wuss and pass out after I cut you up, you hear? We're gonna do it full Eleventh Division style, so you'll have to get the sake when I kick your ass."

"I'm sixteen, you idiot. Back home I'm not allowed to drink, and I'm not gonna start the habit now. Plus I haven't been living here since the dinosaurs went extinct, unlike you. Where the hell would I know how to find a place to buy any booze anyway?"

Ikkaku cackled. "Fine then, hard-ass! Have it your way. We'll keep a tab, then. Once you're old enough, you have to pay back for all the matches you lose or I'll kill you in the first fight we have after your birthday."

"Four years from now I'll be so good that you won't even be able to touch me, much less kill me," Ichigo shot back. "Better work hard to stay on top or you'll be pretty pissed off when it comes time for you to pony up all that alcohol."

"Sounds like a plan to me." He extended his good hand, and Ichigo shook it firmly. "Now come on. We've wasted enough time talking shit at each other. We've got people to beat up! Don't die!"

With that, once they released hands, they dashed apart and into the fray, looking for someone to challenge. Ikkaku was grinning madly at the prospect of fights to come, one arm or no, while Ichigo was much less unrestrained, his face set back into its familiar scowl, but one thing was clear: their meeting of swords had left both of them with a bond of some sort, the kind born between men that shed each others' blood.

Ikkaku would later call it 'the bond of one', and Ichigo would never fail to look moderately disgusted by the idea.

* * *

**Thursday, July 22, 10 AM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase: Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

With school out (and the soreness that came with literally fighting until he dropped, in this particular case) Ichigo found himself sleeping much more heavily than he used to during the school year, often not waking up until around 10 AM. Usually, it was his father's surprise morning attacks that woke him up (much to his continued displeasure), but today, Isshin would miss out on that opportunity, as Ichigo's Soul Phone buzzed loudly enough to wake him from his sleep.

Grumbling, Ichigo sleepily flung his hand onto his desk and slapped down once or twice until he laid hands on the device in question and hit the talk button; since it hadn't stopped buzzing when he'd picked it up, he was probably getting a phone call.

"Yo."

"_Central 46's ruling has come in, Ichigo," _Rukia said, her voice somewhat tired-sounding even without the static of the phone distorting her voice. _"They upheld the Captain-General's decision regarding Ishida, and your friends are technically subject to the same rules insofar as keeping the armbands on are concerned. Apparently, Captain Kurotsuchi submitted a report saying that his adjustments to your armband will be more than enough to keep things under control, and that the same was true of your friends. Because of that, so long as they don't get any more involved there shouldn't be a problem."_

"Well, that's great," he replied, slowly sitting up and rubbing the crust out of his eyes as he tried to process how to break the news to his friends with a half-asleep brain. "As soon as I actually wake up, I'll let them know." A loud thumping began to draw closer and closer to his room, and Ichigo sighed. "We'll talk later, all right? I've got some stuff to do."

Right as he hung up the phone, Isshin burst in through the door, hands extended out and a dazzling smile on his face. "GOOOOOD MORNING, ICHIGO—!"

Ichigo grabbed his father's blue-and-white tie-dye shirt by the collar and slammed Isshin down on the other side of his bed. "Goddamn it, Dad! Will you cut that out?"

"The Papa Put-Down Press," Isshin gasped. "I can't believe you've mastered it."

"Stop making up stupid names for when I kick your ass!"

* * *

**10:10 AM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase: Arisawa Residence**

Tatsuki had just gotten out of the shower and was drying off in her room when her mother hollered for her to pick up the phone and talk to Ichigo. After drying off somewhat and quickly throwing on some clothes, she picked up the phone off the receiver in her room and turned it on.

"Yes, Ichigo?"

"_The ruling is in. You guys have to keep the armbands on like Ishida does. No exceptions."_

Privately, Tatsuki was glad that Ichigo wasn't there to see her face fall. "Seriously? But what if we're targeted by Hollows again? What are we supposed to do?"

Ichigo let out a slow breath. _"I…I don't know." _There was a pause while that hung in the air, and then, he said, _"Listen, it's better this way anyway. You guys shouldn't need to worry about this kind of stuff. It's my problem anyway, so I'll deal with it. That's all there is to it and you guys don't need to get involved any more than you have already."_

Despite herself, Tatsuki's tone grew both worried and threatening. "Ichigo…."

"_I already told Inoue and Chad what's going on and they agreed to follow the ruling. Don't be difficult, Tatsuki. Just stay sharp and be careful. All right?"_

"…I will."

"_Good. I'll talk to you later. Bye."_

He hung up, and Tatsuki held the phone in her hand for a while, staring at it as if she were holding a viper in her hand. Then, she put it down on the cradle and picked up a card on her desk, none other than an Urahara Shop business card.

Urahara had given one to her, Orihime, Chad, and Ishida on the day of the Big Hunt, once Ichigo and Rukia were gone. His words to them, upon doing so, were _"If you're interested in finding out how you can work around these restrictions of yours, give me a call"._

At the time, she hadn't really given much thought to the offer, but as she thought more and more about her potential helplessness over the next few days, she became more and more favorable to the idea.

Now that said helplessness was all but set in stone, she was absolutely dead-set on it. Even if it was just her.

She could care less about Soul Society, or their rules, or their rulings. So long as she could protect her friends and do the right thing without them finding out, it didn't matter to her what she had to do.

She picked up the phone again and began to dial the number.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_THE VAUNTED TRIPLE UPDATE. Weren't expecting it, were you? *evil laugh*_

_Really I just wanted to write this one ahead of time, then I got my wonderful idea (which I'll explain later), then the chapter finished itself. So here we are._

_Let me take a second to congratulate Japan's Women's Team on winning the World Cup over in Frankfurt. It was a nail-biter, I tell you what, but hot damn, they earned it. They definitely earned it._

_Now as far as the story goes, this chapter and the next, and maybe the one after that, are mostly setting the tone for things to come and showing how Ichigo's growing stronger and how he fits in the Seireitei and the Gotei. The plot will be a little slower in this arc, mostly because I would like to give screen time to some favorites that we haven't seen in a while/yet. I will admit to referencing the original Ikkaku/Ichigo fight here, mostly because it helped establish Ikkaku's character so well and because I wanted to show everyone that Ichigo __**is**__ getting stronger. I will also say that if it hadn't been just sword-__to-sword combat, then there's a good chance (like 90% or so) that Ichigo might've been able to come up with something to end the fight earlier and in his favor._

_I played up the comedy angle a bit more in some places mostly because I felt like this story occasionally lacks in it and it's kind of a Bleach staple. Humor is not precisely my strong suit all of the time, so I hope it didn't come across awkwardly._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_Ichigo and Ikkaku's names both contain the character 'ichi', meaning one. This is what Ikkaku is talking about after his fight with Ichigo when he talks about the 'one' thing._

_Student Review Corner:_

_LunaBianca (Chapter 1): Unfortunately, I can't exactly confirm or deny any speculation in the slightest for the sake of maintaining suspense. I'm sure that based on what you may have read since posting your review you've seen that some things have turned out very differently and have drawn your own conclusions from there. I hope you continue to read and enjoy._

_TheSinful (Chapter 16): Urahara/Yoruichi is something that snuck into my mind as part of something silly and nefarious involving Soifon that might happen at some point in the story (though at this rate it might not, I'm not certain). They do give off the 'friend' vibe to me in the actual story, too, but fanon staple couples are fun for me to write, it seems~ As for Yoruichi's actual power, well, it's more than just a tonfa. What exactly it is…well, that may come up sooner rather than later, but it's not a Kidou-type zanpakutou, for sure._

_Ero-kun (Chapter 16): Glad to see you enjoyed it so much. Really, I'm not too sore about the review/reader response thing, and I've come to the conclusion that it mostly has to do with how slowly I update (a lot of stories update at least once a week, on the average). _

_That said, I should point out that a good way to boost reader response is to tell people about it. Spread the word. If something unique to this story strikes your fancy, like Tatsuki's powers or a zanpakutou that I made up (I'm not showing them off now, I know, but I've got quite a few original zanpakutou appearances and powers done up for some canon characters, like Yoruichi's), do some artwork of it, post it up somewhere, and link back to this story. Talk about it on fanfiction forums or on Bleach forums where fanfiction is big. I will admit that I personally don't do those things because I didn't start out writing this with the explicit goal of being extremely, wildly popular. Nor is the popularity especially important to me in and of itself, and I don't want to beg for reviews or set review goals, or whatever. I just want to tell the story. _

_Regarding my wonderful idea—as I said last time I was thinking about speeding up the update schedule to finish the story nice and quickly. Well, after doing this chapter, I've realized that even though I can't promise more than two updates a month all of the time, what I can do is release any chapters that I write between reaching the two-chapter mark for one month and the start of the next. In other words, this chapter would have come out in August if I hadn't managed to finish it between now and August._

_It's my hope to keep this pattern up for any other stories I write in the future, so you can always expect at least 2 chapters from me and maybe 3 or 4. Fair warning, though—recently I've found that the 40+ page mark is no longer quite the length I prefer (because padding happens then and padding is bad), so they're going to be a little shorter than what you're used to._

_So, most likely I'll be seeing you all in August with another two chapters. Unless by some chance I get possessed by my muse once more and crank out another chapter in the next nine days. I do think I'll work on teasers for my plot bunnies, though, and leave you all sweating and stewing over whether I'll go straight into Second Semester after my short break or if I'll switch to another story to do something new. *more evil laughter*_

_Till next class. Enjoy._

_~ZS_


	18. Lesson 18: Going Rogue 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 18: Going Rogue 101, or Overruling the Order on Your Own Terms_

* * *

**Thursday, July 22, 12 PM**

**Karakura Town, Mitsumiya: Urahara Shop**

"_Well, come on over around noon. Business at the shop is slow today, so it's not a problem."_

With those words from her short phone conversation with Urahara echoing in her head, Tatsuki Arisawa stood in front of the Urahara Shop with a slight frown on her face. It being summer, she was dressed casually and coolly, in a pair of khaki capris, a plain, sky-blue t-shirt, and sneakers.

Nothing about the shop's dinky external appearance had changed in the slightest since the last time she'd been here; the sign was the same, the heat was the same, the garbage in the lot was the same. The only thing that was keeping Tatsuki rooted to where she stood was nervousness.

She knew that if Ichigo found out about this, there would be trouble. She knew if the people Ichigo worked for found out about this, there would be more trouble than that. But the fact of the matter was that she'd nearly died a few days ago, and as determined as Ichigo might have been to protect her, protect Chad, protect Orihime, he couldn't be everywhere at once, and if they were attacked by Hollows when he couldn't get to them….

The thought of being eaten by one of the masked monsters sent a cold chill down Tatsuki's spine, and she willed herself forward, opening the door to the store.

Inside, Jinta was managing something behind the main counter, while Ururu and Kai were taking inventory of the shelves. Tessai and Urahara watched them from the slightly-elevated part of the store, standing in front of the door that led to the living quarters, and looked up when the bell above the door announced Tatsuki's arrival.

"Ah, Tatsuki-san, you're here," Urahara said, his tone polite and conversational. In one of his hands, he held a rather plain-looking cane, and was currently leaning on it with mild nonchalance. "Right on time, too. The others are already downstairs."

Tatsuki blinked, and then narrowed her eyes. "'The others are already downstairs,' you say. I take it that you mean Orihime, Sado, and Ishida?"

Urahara opened his fan to hide what might have been a smile or a smirk. "Why, of course. They were there when I made my offer, as well. Surely you don't think you're the only one that accepted it?"

"From what Ichigo told me, I thought I would be," she retorted, walking forward and stepping up onto the elevated part of the room to stand in front of Urahara with a frown. She looked up at the taller man, undisturbed by the glares and stares she could practically feel coming from Jinta, Kai, and Ururu. "Why are they here too? You don't expect me to believe they all decided to come here, on the same day that I did, just to be contrary to Soul Society's orders and get our powers under control."

"Well, Sado-san did. As for Inoue-san and Ishida-kun, well…suffice it to say that one, I have my methods of finding people, and two, I am more than capable of putting said methods to use when I need to find someone in the space of an hour and a half—which is precisely how long it's been since our conversation this morning ended." His smile-smirk grew wider; Tatsuki could tell by the way his cheeks shifted. "But at least this way, things won't be so lonely for you."

Tatsuki shook her head, sighing, as she finally broke eye contact. "Whatever. Let's go to this dinky basement of yours, or whatever it is."

Urahara opened the door to the living quarters and gestured to a hole in the middle of the living room, once covered by one of the rectangular tatami mats that served as the flooring. Tatsuki peered into the hole and saw a ladder extending down into deep darkness, and began to mutter as she grasped the sides of said ladder and began to slowly, carefully, climb down.

"Feh, downstairs, he says. What a joke."

* * *

Not more than two minutes later, Tatsuki was staring blankly up into what appeared to be a sky, with a desolate, brown, and rocky wasteland all around her. She hadn't even taken all of a few steps beyond the ladder before she'd been completely overwhelmed by the sheer size of the space; to her it was like it extended in every direction for eternity.

"…this must be a joke. Where are the hidden cameras?"

"It's real, Arisawa-san, quite real," Urahara said blandly, and Tatsuki screeched in shock, jumping well over a foot into the air. "I also happened to build this place myself, so I would appreciate it if you appreciated all of the work I put into it instead of making snide remarks."

As her heart continued to race, Tatsuki glared daggers at Urahara, who smiled and continued to fan himself. The sounds of footfalls nearby distracted her, though, and she looked towards the sound to see Orihime drawing closer, wearing a pink sleeveless dress that came down to her knees and a white U-necked T-shirt underneath it.

"Tatsuki-chan, you're here," Orihime said, smiling softly.

The gentle look on Orihime's face calmed Tatsuki down quite a bit, but the tenseness never quite left her shoulders or the rest of her body. "Orihime, are you sure about this? Urahara didn't trick you into coming here, did he?"

Orihime shook her head. "He came to my house and told me himself that you called him, and asked me if I wanted to join you." Her expression remained unchanged, but she seemed to straighten, as if her spine had been replaced with a steel rod. "I know what I promised Kurosaki-kun. But…I was also thinking that I couldn't just ignore all of this." She scratched the side of her cheek in a standard "nervous Orihime" reaction, and her smile widened just a bit. "I mean, it's not like I can make the ghosts go away by closing my eyes and telling them too. Not that I tried it or anything, I'm just saying…."

Tatsuki laughed and shook her head, then walked over to Orihime and drew her into a one-armed hug. "No, I understand exactly what you mean. You don't want to be helpless either, right? Because there will be times where Ichigo can't help us, so we have to be able to help ourselves."

Orihime's smile faded a little bit, but she didn't respond otherwise. That told Tatsuki all that she needed to know.

"Where're Sado and Ishida?" Tatsuki asked, knowing that she'd sort of struck a nerve with Orihime.

Orihime perked up at that, snapping out of her pensive funk. "Oh, Sado-kun's meditating. And Ishida-kun is trying out something in private. Come over here, I'll show you what Sado-kun and I were doing so that you can try too."

"Wait, Inoue-san, I need to explain to Arisawa-san what exactly we're doing here," Urahara said. "She needs to know how to get things started."

Orihime blinked, startled, and then gently knocked her forehead with one hand. Tatsuki sighed and gently pulled Orihime's hand down before turning her full attention to Urahara. "OK, so what's the deal?"

Urahara snapped his fan shut, put it away, and began to pace back and forth; the bottom of his cane tapped against the ground with every other step, as he wasn't actively walking with it. "As I explained to the others, the fact that none of you have stopped seeing ghosts means that your individual Spiritual Energies are still high enough to manifest your powers; however, because of the armbands, the actual amount of power that you have available to you is reduced because the armbands eat and absorb enough energy to put you below what I'll call the 'manifestation threshold' for your powers. We have two options in this case."

He raised his right pointer finger, and stopped pacing. "The first is to remove the armbands until your powers manifest once more, then build up your strength so that your manifestation threshold lowers. Once that happens, you will be able to access your powers at all times, though naturally they'll be stronger when the armbands are off." He then raised his middle finger on the same hand. "The other option is to lower your manifestation threshold with the armbands still on, which is intrinsically more difficult but less likely to cause trouble if your armbands are ever inspected by Soul Society."

"So taking them off would alter them in some way?" Tatsuki asked.

Urahara shook his head, putting his free hand on the brim of his hat. "Not visibly, but the structure of the armband itself would change just enough for a particularly keen scientific mind to catch it—and while I will admit that he's a rather disturbed sort of individual, Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi of the Twelfth Division has that very keen scientific mind. If he were to examine them and get suspicious—well, you can imagine."

Tatsuki groaned and ran a hand through her dark spikes of hair. "Then we're defaulting to option two. That's fine by me. How long is it going to take?"

"Depending on how hard all of you work, at least two weeks, possibly longer. In Ishida-kun's case, it'll definitely be longer than that," Urahara said, turning to face Orihime and Tatsuki fully once more.

Tatsuki blinked, and Orihime mirrored her blank expression unconsciously. "Huh? What's so special about him?" the dark-haired girl asked, frowning.

"I'll explain it to you in a moment," Urahara replied, walking past the girls and stepping over a particularly large rock. "For now, let's go find Sado-san and get you two started on the exercises to lower those thresholds of yours."

Not even two minutes later, Tatsuki and Orihime were sitting cross-legged on the ground, on either side of Chad. The large boy was, for once, not wearing a florally-patterned shirt, opting for a sleeveless, U-necked T-shirt with gray trim along the bottom and the sleeves, exposing the heart and snake tattoo on his left shoulder, and long, dark pants. Aside from a quiet, low, "Hey", to greet Tatsuki, he hadn't said a word, and had his eyes closed as he took deep breaths.

"Now, before I tell you what's going on with Ishida-kun, I need to explain what Sado-san and Inoue-san were doing before you came and distracted Inoue-san," Urahara said, leaning on his cane again. "From what little I could conjecture about your powers, they are activated by your willpower first and foremost. That means that once we can get your threshold lowered so that you have the ability to manifest, it should be relatively simple for you to pull your powers back out—if you want it badly enough. Once that's done, we have to get you familiar with your powers so that you can call them out easily and without strain. That'll be the _fun_ part."

A cold chill settled over Tatsuki at mention of the fun; ironically, a loud _BOOM_ in the distance rattled her and Orihime via the ground, though Chad seemed unbothered by it. "OK. And what about Ishida, why isn't he here with us?"

"I doubt he has little need of my help in this part of the training, and so I let him take another corner of this room to himself. He's stated that his armband is in practice similar to a Quincy artifact that he's had knowledge of but never had occasion to use, so he'll manage it on his own somehow, he believes. The matter that will be hard for Ishida-kun will be changing the very nature of his powers."

Tatsuki's confusion was palpable now, but she masked it with annoyance. "And what does THAT mean, oh great sensei?"

"Think back to our conversation on that day. Did I not explain to you that the powers of the Quincy intrinsically destroy the souls trapped within a Hollow?"

Orihime nodded. "I remember. You said that was the reason why the Soul Reapers…killed all of them—because they would unbalance the cycle of life and death by removing souls from it."

Urahara rapped his cane against the ground and said, grinning, "Exactly. But all hope hasn't been lost just yet. You see, Ishida-kun's been coming here for the last week of his own accord, trying to dig a little deeper into an understanding of his own powers. He shared with me a little bit of the way Quincy develop and use their powers, after some persuasion, and from what he told me I was able to figure out what the Quincy either did not know or did not care to know about their arrows—specifically, what it is about them that makes souls die, and not be purified."

"And that is what, exactly?" Tatsuki asked.

Urahara adjusted his hat slightly, and replied, "Spiritual Particles and spiritual resonance."

The response from Orihime and Tatsuki was a puzzled stare, and even Chad opened one eye to appraise Urahara with noticeable skepticism. After a moment, the shopkeeper chuckled and shook his head.

"Oh, yes, that's right—you don't know what I'm getting at. I'm sorry; I'm too used to discussing this with people that know the theory already." He cleared his throat before continuing. "Put simply, every spiritual object, living or non-living—souls, the bodies of Soul Reapers, their zanpakutou, and even Soul Society and the bodies of Hollows—are made up of Spiritual Particles. Moreover, each object has its own unique spiritual resonance—a vibration frequency, if you will, which comes from the combination of two things—the concentration of the Spiritual Particles into the shape of the object, and the actual presence of…something…within the soul. What it is precisely is difficult to determine but my own research has led me to believe that a soul is only a soul because of this unique presence—without it it's just a bunch of Particles gathered together. I have also discovered that no two objects, not even when made from the same materials, have precisely the same spiritual resonance."

Here, he stroked his chin for a moment, putting together the rest of his theory in his head while Tatsuki, Orihime, and Chad looked on expectantly. Once he was sure that his explanation so far was understood, he said, "Now, as I said earlier, spiritual resonance comes from something within a soul. That said, do you think raw Particles have their own frequencies?"

"They can't," Orihime said slowly, with a look of intense concentration on her face as she spoke. Tatsuki smiled, recognizing it as Orihime's "study game face", reserved for when she was thinking extra-hard or taking tests. As her current number 3 ranking in their class showed, said "thinking extra-hard" definitely paid off when she put her mind to it. "If there's no soul to give them the resonance, then they must not have one."

"Ding-dong, you are correct," Urahara said, giving the OK sign with his right hand while grinning broadly. "And that brings us to the next point. Until Particles come into contact with a soul, they have no resonance. Because of that, they take on the properties of whatever soul they first come into contact with. The Quincy technique of creating a bow and arrow uses rigorous focusing and separation techniques to compress the particles into the weapons they need, but also prevents the particles from receiving a resonance because they're not in contact with the Quincy's soul. The end result is that when an arrow is fired and hits a Hollow, the arrow's spiritual resonance becomes that of the Hollow's. And the end result is that the very structure of the Hollow's body is torn apart down to the 'atomic level' because the resonances match exactly, and when that happens, the soul, or in the Hollow's case, souls, are ripped down to that same level and is unable to maintain a form."

Though she was no scientist, Tatsuki could follow the logic easily enough, aside from one detail. "But how do you know that for sure? I mean, you said that no two objects, even when made from the same material, have the same resonance, right? How can you be sure that the soul being blown up or whatever isn't happening because of something else that the Quincy did?"

"I've managed to make artificial objects that share the same resonance prior to ever knowing how exactly a Quincy's powers work," Urahara said, and his eyes became shadowed by the brim of his hat as he grew more serious. "When they collided with each other, the end result was a rather nasty explosion that wiped both objects out and left nothing but free-floating particles. It's based on that research that I was able to explain to Ishida-kun why his powers do what they do." He lifted his head and looked out over the rocky training ground, briefly feeling a flash of Yoruichi's Spiritual Pressure come and go. "What Ishida-kun has to do now is develop a style of Quincy archery that uses his soul more…directly. He has to strip away the 'insulation' techniques that keep the Spiritual Particles from gaining the resonance of his soul so that his arrows no longer take on the resonance of the Hollows he hits. However, that insulation is also what gives both the bow and the arrow its shape and function. Without it, actually collecting the Particles into a solid mass is much more difficult, even without a Suppression Band on. It's like pouring concrete without a mold of some sort to keep everything together."

Again, there was silence as Tatsuki, Orihime, and Chad absorbed that tidbit of information. It was much shorter, though, because Tatsuki suddenly pounded her fist into her palm and then slapped her hands onto her thighs, as if psyching herself up before a karate match.

"Well, then, we need to get started too. He's got a week-long jump on us, so why don't we stop talking and start closing the gap?"

Urahara shrugged and smiled. "If that's what you want. First off, you'll need to be able to perceive the Spiritual Energy and Spiritual Pressure of other beings. That's what Sado-san was practicing earlier when he was meditating. From what he told me, you all have already begun the process—those lights, and odd sensations you've been experiencing, are the spiritual presences of other beings around you. Once you can focus and direct those senses, which includes blocking some things out or focusing on others, you'll be closer to reaching your own powers."

Tatsuki nodded, while Orihime, having heard this already, began to relax herself as she'd been told to by Urahara, earlier.

"Yoruichi will be by a little later to ask you if you need anything. I have to go back upstairs and take care of a few things. Don't wander from this spot and we'll get you back home whenever you're ready to leave, all right?"

"No problem," Tatsuki replied, waving a hand as she closed her eyes and scrunched her brows together. "Do what you need to do and we'll do what we need to do."

Urahara offered only a nod in response, and then walked off nonchalantly towards Ishida's chosen corner of study. He'd felt some interesting peaks and lows in the boy's Spiritual Pressure over the last few days, and suspected that perhaps Ishida was going to step up the timetable after all.

* * *

**12 PM**

**Soul Society, Seireitei: Near Soukyoku Hill**

While Ichigo's friends attempted to clear their minds and gain a new sense of the world around them, Ichigo himself was in the middle of some pitched combat with Soifon. Though he was still a bit winded from a quick morning patrol, Ichigo had run alongside Soifon with relative ease during their opening sprint exercises, and with strong, steady footing to boot.

As Soifon threw a series of quick, probing jabs at Ichigo's ribcage, she noted the sharpness in the slaps and blocks he used to fend them off, and his own responding attacks were equally focused and targeted, if a bit too slow to hit her. She was now fairly positive that he had finally gotten the hang of actively tracking her with his eyes and counterattacking whenever he got the chance.

_I'd heard that he managed to tie with one of the Eleventh's seated officers during his last training session there, _she thought as she continued to evade Ichigo's counterattacks and press her own advantage._ If that's the case then his confidence probably got a large boost and that might explain how he's doing so much better now._

A shadow loomed over her face, and rather than dodging Ichigo's next blow—an overhead chop—she caught his forearm and moved in with an elbow strike to his chest, knocking him back and forcing a cough from his lungs. She then followed up with a jump and two sharp kicks, driving her heel into his throat and forehead. Choking, Ichigo fell down, though he managed to remember something of his break-fall techniques and landed in a crouch that allowed him a measure of defense if he got his hands up.

Without pausing, Soifon burst into Flash Steps, appearing behind him almost immediately with her arm raised for a chop; Ichigo's response was a scratchy, unintelligible curse and a Flash Step of his own, right before Soifon swung down at where his skull might've been.

Grunting in surprise, Soifon landed smoothly from her jumping attack and stood up, her braids bouncing smoothly as she did so. The ease of her movement was emphasized by her appearance; though she was still wearing her full uniform, down to her captain's jacket, she wasn't sweating or strained in the slightest by the heat.

Wordlessly, she looked around the clearing where she stood, peering into the forest. Really, she didn't need to, because her sixth sense was already reaching out to its limits all around her, searching for Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure. To her satisfaction, she found it immediately, just overhead; he was likely sitting in a tree branch, watching her.

_Even if he could have suppressed his power, which I doubt he could do anywhere close to well, he's the only person within miles of here. Did he really think he could hide?_

Not more than a millisecond after that thought crossed her mind, Soifon felt Ichigo's Pressure descending from above, and she sidestepped lightly as he came crashing down on top of where she'd been standing.

"Dammit, are you psychic or something?" the Deputy asked, speaking for the first time since they'd started fighting. His voice was still croaky and rough from his exertions and from having his windpipe nearly kicked in.

Soifon folded her arms, regarding her student coldly. "I'm leader of the Stealth Force, Kurosaki. If you expect to outmatch me in terms of stealth techniques and ambushes, especially with that ridiculous amount of Spiritual Pressure, I'm afraid you're woefully naïve and at least a thousand years too early."

Rubbing his throat, Ichigo stood up, grunting. "I'm pretty sure that little stunt just now proved that, Captain." He cleared his throat, rubbing it again with a wince. "All right, that's all I have to say. Let's keep going."

"Remember, you're going to go to the Tenth Division in an hour," Soifon said, taking her stance as Ichigo took his. She'd gotten the Hell Butterfly that morning, requesting that Ichigo come over to Captain Hitsugaya's division when his morning training was complete. She didn't know what the young captain wanted with Ichigo, but as per Yamamoto's decision, Ichigo had to go and help out, even though it would cut into the training she had planned for him.

"Yeah, I remember. So let's quit wasting time and keep going, already," Ichigo replied, scowling in determination. "I think I can take you this time."

Soifon shook her head and sighed, but wasted no words, instead opting to run forward, low to the ground. Ichigo let her come, making no movement to evade, and was entirely unsurprised when she disappeared in a burst of Flash Steps before she got within striking range. He turned around, expecting her to attack him from behind—

And promptly felt his head jerk forward as she punched him in the back of the head, then drove an elbow into his unprotected back. Again, he recovered, whirling around to face her, and managed to see a black-white-orange blur disappear before his eyes.

This time, he waited, mirroring Soifon's response to his own attack earlier. He reached out with his spiritual senses, and when he felt something _sharp_ coming in at him, he ducked. Soifon's sweeping kick passed overhead, cloaking him in shadow as her hakama billowed out over him. When the shadow was gone, he struck, using his right shoulder to body-check her into a nearby tree.

The captain of the Second Division allowed herself a small gasp of shock as her back hit the trunk of the tree. It didn't really hurt, per se, in part because of natural Reaper resiliency and partially because she had a ridiculous amount of pain tolerance on top of that. However, the way he'd responded was the real surprise, mostly because of how perfectly he'd mimicked her earlier actions.

_He's become sharper, faster, and maybe a bit stronger. There's no doubt in my mind. He's improving._

She pushed off the tree, and bits and pieces of the bark fell off of her back ash she stood tall again, her expression back to its normal state. However, in her eyes, there was a calculating coldness that hadn't been there before as she regarded his calm expression, his tightened stance. Her overall regard of Ichigo had changed from "rank amateur" to "slightly below average", his abominable stealth skills aside.

_But is this change coming from what I taught him, or just from getting used to my usual attack patterns? I have no way of knowing right now and I won't be sure until I can put him against other people._

She saw his leg tense to spring forward, and she banished her thoughts from her mind as she blocked a straight punch with her right forearm.

She could waste time on guesses and suppositions when he came back. For now, she had to demonstrate why exactly she was the undisputed master of hand-to-hand combat amongst all the captains, excepting possibly Yamamoto.

* * *

**2:05 PM**

Outside of the forest near the Soukyoku Hill, the heat from the summer sun was dangerously oppressive and generally energy-draining. Few Reapers were out and about in the Seireitei, preferring to do whatever they could indoors where it was slightly cooler, though not necessarily by much.

Unfortunately for Ichigo, he wasn't so fortunate as to be inside, not yet. After another hour of sparring with Soifon, which was the source of the bruises on his ribs and his puffy right cheek, Ichigo was sent off to the southeastern part of Seireitei, where the Tenth Division sat between the Eighth to the northeast and the Twelfth to the southwest. The matter wasn't made any simpler by virtue of the fact that Seireitei's streets were identical to a fault, and that no one had heard of signposts, apparently. On top of that, the distance he had to span was so great that regular walking would have taken him forever.

Luckily, thanks to Flash Steps across the rooftops, and the map on his Soul Phone (once he got a handle on it), Ichigo made pretty good time, reaching the Tenth Division after about an hour of travel. As he dropped out of the last set of Flash Steps he'd taken, Ichigo sighed heavily and wiped the sweat off his brow, leaning on one of the gate pillars that led onto the main grounds and barracks with his shoulders hunched and head down.

He heard the distinctive rasp of sandals on the dirt and lifted his head wearily to see Rangiku and Captain Hitsugaya walking up to him. The Lieutenant, as always, had a beaming smile on her face, and her young captain's scowl reminded Ichigo rather pointedly of his own.

"Rangiku, Captain," he said, panting a bit as he nodded his head. "Sorry I took so long. This place is kind of confusing."

"I don't know why Captain Soifon didn't bother to escort you, but I suppose it can't be helped," Hitsugaya replied. "Now that you're here, we can get you started on your odd jobs. The Hell Butterflies will need to be fed soon, but before that we need to take an inventory of equipment and the common areas of the barracks need to be wiped down."

Ichigo blinked a few times, and then turned his scowl up a bit, looking down at Hitsugaya rather dangerously. "Wait a minute, you guys called me here to help out with cleanup? Seriously?"

Cool as a cucumber, Hitsugaya adjusted the green sash that went over his shoulder and held his sword close to his back, looking up at the much taller Ichigo. "Yes. And before you start to complain about how you're doing grunt work, I should have you know that you would much rather be doing cleaning and feeding the Hell Butterflies than doing paperwork." A shudder ran through his body, and he couldn't quite suppress it, making Ichigo raise a brow in confusion.

"It can't be that bad."

"Ichigo-kun, a lot of things go on in these divisions that require the seated officers to file, sort, and requisition paperwork," Rangiku said, shaking her head as she consolingly patted Hitsugaya's wild white shock of hair. "Transfer requests, sick leave requests, return from sick leave confirmations, inventory requisitions, supply requisitions, Living World officer assignments, Living World officer transfers—"

"I think he gets it, Matsumoto," Hitsugaya said at last, irritably pushing off Rangiku's hand and absently brushing away the forelock of hair that hung over his left eye. "Now, Kurosaki, it's a bit hot out here and I'd rather not continue to sweat when there's work to be done. Let's go."

Ichigo sighed, and pushed himself away from the pillar entirely, looking towards the main building of the Tenth Division right in front of him. "All right, whatever you say. Though, if it's all right, I'd like to borrow your training room when I'm done working. Lieutenant Hinamori gave me some spells to work on, and Rukia's going to be testing me on them soon."

"Which ones, Ichigo-kun?" Rangiku asked, looking over her shoulder at him as she followed Hitsugaya indoors.

Ichigo's reply came as he fell into step behind her and Hitsugaya. "I'm working on Bound Lightning, Repulse, and Strike. Rukia showed me how to do Red Fire Cannon just yesterday as a 'teaser', but when I do it with the incantation I can't quite control it all the way. Without, it barely forms properly, but I can at least hit things with it."

Hitsugaya arched an eyebrow. He'd known that Hinamori was training Ichigo—he would have had to be sleeping with his eyes awake during the last several meetings to not know that—but from what he read from the last progress report that Rukia submitted to the captains and lieutenants, Ichigo's control of his overall power, while improved, hadn't quite reached the level for mid-level spells to be attempted safely. That he had, in the six days since that report had been submitted, brought his control so far...it was both impressive and baffling.

As Rangiku and Ichigo ascended the wooden steps to the porch of the main building, Hitsugaya swept aside the doors, and looked over his shoulder at them. "Matsumoto. Once Kurosaki's finished, help him out with the spells that Momo gave him to study. But you're not going to help him until you get all of your backlogged paperwork done and your office cleaned. I've already given instructions to the other members of the division to not pick up after you. For now, though, take him to one of the common rooms and have him start cleaning up."

Rangiku drooped at mention of her office and her paperwork, as she hadn't even bothered touching the mess in her office since her trip to Karakura back when Shrieker had been running around. When Hitsugaya glared at her, though, she straightened up so quickly that Ichigo could have sworn her spine was going to snap in half.

"Yes, sir, gladly, sir!" she replied, and Hitsugaya rolled his eyes before he went inside. Ichigo, meanwhile, had a bemused look on his face.

"Momo? He knows Hinamori personally?" the Deputy said aloud, scratching his head.

"Yes. They grew up together in Rukongai for quite some time before Momo entered the Soul Reaper Academy," Rangiku said, relaxing considerably now that Hitsugaya wasn't intimidating her with his icy blue-green stare. "They're good friends, the kind you don't really see anymore." She wiped a stray bead of sweat off of her forehead. "But let's not gossip about them out here. The Captain will make me eat my badge if I don't get my work done today. Let's go inside and get you started on work, shall we?

As she spoke, the sun seemed to get a bit hotter, and Ichigo grunted his agreement as he moved inside, all annoyance at having to clean and take notes completely banished by the heat. So intent was he on moving forward that he didn't notice Rangiku smile slyly and ready a small camera.

"All I have to do is get him to help sweep out the yard," she muttered to herself. "As hot as it is, he'll take off his top, and right then and there..." She chuckled and grinned. "Ladies, we are going to make a _killing._"

* * *

**Friday, July 23, 2:30 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Sixth Division Barracks**

Byakuya Kuchiki's office was, much like the man himself, straightforward and not just a little bit austere. The walls were pale-green, and the wooden floor immaculately swept. Aside from an odd wall scroll or two, covered in delicately inked calligraphy that Kuchiki himself had painted, and a vase with flowers sitting on the windowsill behind his desk, there were no decorations.

Because of how simple, and almost empty, the room was, Byakuya found that it was also the perfect place to mull over matters he'd observed that day or that week while filling out his paperwork and setting it aside to be approved or archived as appropriate.

The first observation that came to his mind was the matter of Rukia. Ever since she'd been appointed as Ichigo's liaison and preferred partner, something that had been lacking in her overall state of being was very slowly establishing itself. At dinners between herself and Byakuya, she was still quiet, polite, and deferential, but she carried herself with a steely resolve that he hadn't seen in her before. Often times, she would come back to the Kuchiki compound after handling work at the Thirteenth Division or coming back from patrol with Ichigo, and utilize the private training room for hours on end, coming out noticeably tired. Such were her exertions that Byakuya could feel her Pressure rising and falling from across the compound, from his private quarters that were all but sequestered from the main house.

Under normal circumstances, he might have asked her to reveal just what it was that had been such a change in her life, but the answer was all but self-evident.

For whatever reasons, the words he had spoken to her—_"Continue to follow through on this commitment you have made. Make the Kuchiki family proud in doing so. That is all I __ask of you"_—had been committed to her heart, and she wasn't letting them go from that spot.

_Perhaps I will need to have a discussion with Captain Ukitake regarding my request. If she continues to progress at this rate...then she will be more than capable of taking a seated position._

It was at that moment that a familiar pattern of steps broke into his thoughts; there were two separate sets of footfalls, one being Renji's heavy steps and the other being Rukia's lighter, smoother movements. Unperturbed, Byakuya continued to look down at his papers, appearing entirely unruffled when Renji and Rukia entered his office.

"I assume you are here to deliver your report, Rukia," Byakuya said, casually setting aside a sheet of paper.

"Yes, sir," Rukia replied, straightening reflexively as she walked forward to set the thin report on his desk. Byakuya paused in his pretended sorting through his papers to take it without comment.

Once more, he saw it. Rukia, a month, two months, three months ago, would have been uncomfortable in her silence, schooling it all behind her expression of well-taught and finely crafted passivity. But now, she was unhesitating, steady. Her calm was not hiding anything.

_Is it really as simple as meeting this boy?_ Byakuya wondered, putting the report aside without a word. _It can't be. But...if it is, then why?_

"If you'll excuse me, sir," Rukia said, and she bowed shortly before making her way to the door.

"Where is Kurosaki now?"

Byakuya's question was unexpected, but again, Rukia was self-possessed enough to react calmly, without hesitation or pause. "He's at the Eighth Division with Captain Kyouraku and Lieutenant Ise. Today is his Kidou training."

No sound or sign of acknowledgment left his lips, but Rukia knew that he had heard and would remember. With that, she left, and Renji watched her, concern evident on his face. But before he could speak or even make a move to pursue her, Byakuya stood up, his scarf fluttering slightly as he pushed his chair back.

"Abarai. I'm going to get some air."

Renji nodded, and the Captain stepped out of the room, striding down the hall. Immediately, the red-head Lieutenant left his captain's office, closing the door and putting up a sign that said "please do not disturb" before moving much more slowly down the hall, to where Rukia had stopped with a bemused frown on her face.

"Renji," she said to him as he came closer, "Byakuya-nii-sama just passed by me a second ago. Where is it he's going?"

"He said he wanted to get some air," Renji replied, adjusting his goggles upwards a bit. "But, listen, Rukia, something's been bugging me. You've been coming by, delivering these reports, and every time there's just something about the way you talk to the Captain. It's not like you. Is there something wrong? Did he do anything to you?"

Rukia shook her head. "No, there's nothing wrong. I just..." She paused, and ran a hand through her hair, her lips pursed, and Renji continued to watch her, wondering what had her tongue so tied. At length, she let off a huffing sigh and shook her head. "I've just been doing a lot of thinking lately. A lot's happened since we were in the Academy, you know? For the longest time since then, there have been times where it feels like I'm just going through the motions. Like I'm not living. But Ichigo...just watching him work, watching him fight, watching him be himself, and just thinking about one thing he told me_—_it made me realize something."

"And what's that exactly?" Renji asked.

"We're dead, Renji, but we're human. We feel as humans feel even when we tell ourselves otherwise. We hope. And we live. And we die, no matter how long it takes. So then, I asked myself. 'Am I willing to sit here and refuse to live?'" Her face became stern, yet sad. "And the answer I came up with was 'no'."

The memory of a rainy day, of Sode no Shirayuki—of HER—being covered in blood, of a sad, smiling face built so much like Ichigo's, looking down on her, not condemning her, came and went once more, but Rukia didn't cry, didn't flinch.

"I'm here. I'm alive. So I'll live. And if I live, I'm going to get stronger, too. So I've been training. I've been trying to be the kind of person that I should be, as a Soul Reaper, as a Kuchiki. Becoming that person means becoming a stronger person. That's all there really is to it."

Renji's lips were pursed, but after a moment, he simply nodded. The look in Rukia's eyes was a look that he hadn't seen in a while. When she was younger, it was full of mischief, but cunning, as well—an instinctive understanding of what had to happen next if they were going to go somewhere.

Now, though, there was nothing there but determination. The instinct was still there, but it was tempered by a host of things that Renji had no idea Rukia had gone through despite their history, and focused onto this goal of hers. _The same way I have a goal, she does, now, _he thought. _So as she strives for her goal, I'll strive for mine. _

"Sounds like a plan to me," he said aloud. "You may look the same, Rukia, but you've really grown up."

Rukia smirked and rolled her eyes. "And you're still the same pineapple-headed idiot I know and love. So what does that say about how much you've grown?"

"I would say 'nothing', except that it' s not like you've been paying any attention to me to know how much I've changed, seeing as how you're so busy hanging around Kurosaki in the real world," Renji replied, crossing his arms.

Though there was no reproof or annoyance in his voice, Rukia flinched, and looked downwards, biting her lip. The Sixth Division's lieutenant immediately gave himself a mental punch in the face.

"Wait, Rukia, I...I didn't mean it like that."

"Then how did you mean it, Renji? Tell me." Her voice was angry and hurt, now, no guilt coloring it. Or rather, her guilt was being masked by her anger.

Renji shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, and took a breath before taking the plunge."I just meant that aside from those few times where we got together to help train Kurosaki, we don't talk. We don't hang out. And part of that, I know is my fault. Part of it is just how much work we have to do. But that doesn't change the fact that I miss our friendship. All I want..."

He swallowed the words that first sprang to his mind, knowing that the last thing he wanted or needed to say in this case was anything involving the word _like, love, _and _you_.

"All I want is to keep our friendship strong. That's it."

Rukia's expression cleared slightly, but said nothing for a while. At length, though, she sighed, and ran a hand through her hair.

"Then I have a suggestion for you. It's not fair of me to ask, but it has the highest chance of working."

* * *

**3:00 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Eighth Division's Barracks**

Within the Eighth Division's training room, Ichigo stood stock-still in the center of the room, his breathing slow and modulated though his body was cloaked in the red glow of the Strike spell that Lieutenant Ise cast on him just three minutes before. Suddenly, he grinned in triumph as the glow burst away from him in one controlled burst of his Spiritual Pressure. Ise nodded, a small but friendly smile lighting up her face, while Kyoraku sipped another bit of sake from his cup and nodded.

"You're a quick study, my boy," the Captain said. "You've been practicing, haven't you?"

Ichigo stretched his arms out a bit, sighing. "I got a few pointers from Rangiku when I was hanging around the Tenth yesterday. I'm not as good at it as she is, though. She can gauge how much Pressure she needs to build up a spell without having to wait and build up Spiritual Pressure like I have to."

Ise fought to keep her smile from widening too much; once the workday ended yesterday, Rangiku came straight to her and showed her a number of pictures that she'd snapped of Ichigo—shirtless while sweeping up outside, concentrating on breaking a Crawling Rope spell, and even a few of him smiling a bit when he wasn't looking anywhere in particular. Though not everyone knew about the photos yet, the next meeting of the Soul Reapers Women's Association would be quite interesting.

"Well that comes with time and experience," Kyouraku said. "Don't worry too much about it, hm?"

Ichigo nodded, but whatever he had to say next never came, as Byakuya Kuchiki all but glided into the room, his expression blank and unconcerned as usual.

"Captain Kyouraku, Lieutenant Ise, Kurosaki," Byakuya said, nodding to each in turn. "Pardon my intrusion."

Kyouraku stood and nodded, adjusting his hat. "Kuchiki-san, what a pleasant surprise. How can I help you today?"

"I need to have a short discussion with Kurosaki. May we be excused for a moment?"

"By all means," Ise replied. "We were just finishing something up." She turned to Ichigo next. "We'll continue when you come back, Kurosaki-kun. I'm positive that you should be able to use a few more Bakudou after you master Crawling Rope."

Ichigo gave Byakuya a slightly wary glance, but squashed his curiosity about what precisely the captain of the Sixth wanted with him. "All right, Ise-san."

Out in the hallway, Ichigo looked up into Byakuya's cool gray eyes, holding himself rather loosely but not quite relaxing."So what did you want to discuss, sir?"

"I wish to assess your progress myself," Byakuya replied, and Ichigo raised an eyebrow, knowing exactly what that implied. "Not today, considering that you are currently in the middle of your training, but perhaps in a few days. I am informing you of this personally so that you may do what you see fit to prepare."

"Is there any particular reason for this all of a sudden?" Ichigo asked.

"That is not your concern."

Despite himself, Ichigo felt his eyes narrow. "It concerns me fighting you, sir. With all due respect, I would say that it is my business."

Byakuya ignored the slight insubordination and turned away, walking away from Ichigo without another word. Ichigo briefly considered following him and demanding ansers, but after a moment, he decided against it.

_He's still a dick, but he's a captain. If I start getting smart with him, it's going to end poorly. I'll just beat the answer out of him when we fight._

With that, he went back into the training room, and was somewhat surprised to see Ise and Kyouraku standing awfully close to the door; they froze up when Ichigo came back in and looked at their semi-guilty faces with confusion.

"Were you two eavesdropping just now?"

Ise coughed a few times and looked away, blushing. Kyouraku simply shrugged, smiling cheekily as he went back to where his sake and cups sat on the floor.

"Nanao-chan might have been," Kyouraku said, and his smile only grew when Nanao yelped and chucked a book at him; she missed, but knocked over his bottle of sake, turning his expression head over heels.

"No, Nanao-chan! Not the sake! Anything but the sake!"

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Got stuck right around the middle of this one, as often happens these days, but now that I've finally reached the end, it feels good, as usual._

_With any luck, next chapter will be the last "slow" one, and we can start to see some fighting and the start of the plot's upswing. Because of how things turned out, I admit that my take on the Soul Society isn't quite as action-packed as the canon one, but I'm grateful that people were willing to hold out while I played around with some character focus pieces. I know that Bleach, being shounen, is usually a bit more fast-paced, but one thing I think is important is getting their characters right. Should I get the chance to get to it, Second Semester will definitely be along the lines of "action" a bit more._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_Hakama: the billowing pants/s that are a part of the Shihakushou, the Reaper outfit. There are two types, the umanori for riding horses, which resemble trousers, and the lantern shaped andon, which lack the split that the umanori hakama have._

_Student Review Corner:_

_Xsd (Chapter 17): I actually do have an original story that I'm working on when I'm not working on this. It's been an on-and-off process for a while now, and I'm keeping it sort of close to the chest, but I'm going to get it out there someday._

_I don't know if anyone has been by my profile in a while, but I did add a teaser for **Lightning from Void, **a plot bunny that I had for a Familiar of Zero and Guilty Gear crossover, and some artwork that I drew myself for Substitute School there. More sketches should be incoming as I get around to them, and I should warn you now that the teaser and the actual chapter might be a bit different, assuming if I pick it up as a full-fledged story._

_Chapter 19 hasn't gotten started up yet, but I know what's coming down the pipe so once I can get myself started, it'll be awesome. Especially since the recent Bleach chapter was...inspiring to say the least. Kubo stepped up his game, folks. _

_All right, that's all from me. I'll see you guys a little down the way, OK? 'Till next class._

_~ZS_


	19. Lesson 19: Workplace Tests 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 19: Workplace Tests 101, or Butt Heads with the Big Boys_

* * *

**Sunday, July 25, 11 AM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Eleventh Division Barracks**

If there was one thing Rukia could pride herself on, it was her Kuchiki-taught self-control, particularly its development in her dealings with her older brother. At times it felt like a terrible strain to tuck all of her feelings away behind a blank, straight-faced mask, but she was in most cases entirely comfortable with reining in her gut reactions to most of the things she saw or heard if they weren't appropriate for the situation at hand.

However, there were times where she failed miserably at that.

"My brother said what?"

Ichigo telling her of her brother's impromptu and somewhat unstated challenge to him right as they arrived at the Eleventh Division's barracks was one of those times.

"I don't know where it came from, myself, but yes, that's what he said," Ichigo replied. He hadn't told her about the incident until they'd come close to the Eleventh's gates, in part because he hadn't remembered to bring it up when she'd come back to his place for patrol last night, and in part because he hadn't wanted to concern her with it initially. He figured that if he told her, she'd stew over it and then do something ludicrous, probably in the interest of keeping her partner and her brother from beating the living crap out of each other for no reason.

The only reason Ichigo even decided to tell Rukia what had happened was that he knew it would bother him to keep the secret for too long, and that she was bound to find out eventually, possibly from Byakuya but more likely from Renji, if Renji knew what was going on (and why wouldn't he? Renji was Byakuya's lieutenant after all, and if there was going to be some event at the Sixth it only made sense that the lieutenant knew what was going on).

He was regretting telling her already.

"But why would he even say such a thing to you, let alone actually challenge you?" Rukia continued, oblivious to Ichigo's weary expression. "It's not like him to do things without any reason. Something spurred him into this decision. The only question is what caused it." Her eyebrows drew together as she puzzled over her brother's motives. "Did you say something to insult him, Ichigo? I thought we talked about proper etiquette when speaking to the captains!"

"I didn't say _anything_ like that to him, Rukia, he just said it out of the blue," Ichigo replied, rubbing his forehead as he walked past her and into the Eleventh's training ground. "Look, now's not the time to get all bent out of shape about this. I doubt anything serious will happen when I fight him and it's not like we're going to be actively trying to kill each other."

_I'm just going to beat the hell out of him, is all, _Ichigo's more competitive side said in his mind. _Seated officer or not, I'm no slouch either. Whether I win or lose I'm going to make him work for it!_

Whatever Rukia had to say next was drowned out by a cackling laugh from their right, one that cut through the din of the other Eleventh Division members beating the ever loving life out of one another. Ichigo put on a tired smile and drew Zangetsu with his right hand; Rukia immediately recognized the Spiritual Energy of the person rushing them, and stepped away as Ikkaku Madarame's Houzukimaru, still in its sealed form, clashed against Zangetsu's blade.

"Felt like forever, Ichigo!" Ikkaku said, grinning madly as he dug his feet further into the dusty ground. "What the hell have you been doing, man? I've been beating on pansies for the last two days and I'm bored out of my mind!"

"Look, Ikkaku, I'll admit, I appreciate a good challenge as much as any guy," Ichigo replied, though his own smile didn't shrink. "Still, I've got more to learn than just how to swing a sword around, and that takes time."

"I've heard from the Captain that you're supposed to be spending time with all the divisions anyway. So why haven't you been by here, huh?"

Ichigo finally quit holding back Houzukimaru and actively pushed Ikkaku back a few paces, shaking the soreness out of his right arm. "Because all you guys do here is fight anyway. What would I be learning about your division that I didn't know already?"

Ikkaku cackled, and pulled Houzukimaru's sheath from his sash, crouching into a stance with the sheath held high and the sword held low. "Point taken. So what do you say we get your sake tab started?"

Ichigo snorted and held Zangetsu ready with both hands. "Sure, whatever." He felt Zangetsu's Spiritual Energy flare briefly as well, and smiled. _We've got this, partner. _

_**Indeed, we do, **_Zangetsu replied, his voice booming in Ichigo's head, and the boy's grin widened as he let his Energy flow into his sword and pulse out.

"Rise, Zangetsu!"

"Grow, Houzukimaru!"

And as they fought, Rukia frowned and began to think about just what to ask Renji later, regarding this challenge.

* * *

**8:20 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Sixth Division Barracks**

Renji yawned and scratched his cheek as he walked down the halls of the Sixth Division, the wooden floors squeaking slightly beneath his feet. It had been a paperwork filled nightmare of a day, as per usual, and with the summer heat that had been pervading Seireitei now gone for the most part, he was more than ready to go and chill out.

As he headed for the front of the Division, he felt familiar Spiritual Energy drawing close to him, and he stopped just outside of the building as Byakuya came up to him from his left side. Ever polite, Renji bowed to his commanding officer.

"Captain Kuchiki."

Byakuya acknowledged the gesture with the barest of nods as Renji pushed his ever-present goggles back up onto his forehead, as they'd slipped during his bow. "Abarai. I need you to make sure that the dojo is clean and that there are practice swords in good condition by Wednesday. I have an engagement to see to on that day."

"With whom, sir?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki."

Renji tried and failed to stop his first reaction to that remark, which resulted in him choking comically on absolutely nothing for a few moments. Byakuya ignored the outburst and waited for his lieutenant to get a hold of himself again before continuing to speak.

"Is there a problem, Abarai?"

"N-no, sir, not at all, sir," Renji replied after one more choking cough. "I was just wondering why—"

"It is none of your concern," Byakuya said. "Just do as I have instructed you."

Renji coughed again, but straightened out his face and sighed. "Yessir."

His only indication that Byakuya heard him was the whoosh of Flash Steps.

"Really, Captain, do you do this just to torture me?" Renji muttered, rubbing his forehead. "God."

From just beyond the gate in front of him, Rukia's voice cut through the hot night air. "Renji! Renji, I need to talk to you!"

Renji hissed and pulled his goggles down, not wanting Rukia to see how annoyed he was. So long as his eyes weren't visible, the way his eyebrows were tattooed would keep Rukia from noticing anything odd about his expression. "_Oh god damn_—yes, Rukia, what is it?"

The Kuchiki 'princess' stormed around the corner and grabbed Renji by the robes, pulling him down to her level. "First of all, I heard you swearing. Calm yourself and don't say anything to me that you're gonna regret. Secondly, what is this nonsense I'm hearing about my brother challenging Ichigo to a fight?"

Renji firmly pulled his friend's hand away and straightened his robes, folding his arms as he looked up at the starry night sky. "Rukia, he just dropped it on me not more than half a minute ago. What do you want me to tell you?"

"When and where, is what." Her voice grew hard. "And where did my brother go? I need to talk to him about this right now."

"I have no idea where he went, and you're not going to talk him out of it, Rukia," Renji replied, annoyance coloring his tone. "As long as you've known the Captain, you should be aware of when he gets an idea stuck so firmly in his head. Whatever reason he wants this for, he wants it, period."

Rukia glared up at him in annoyance, but he didn't change his expression or position in the slightest.

"They're not actually using their zanpakutou, either, so don't give me that look. It's gonna be a serious fight but hardly lethal."

"But Renji, this is my brother we're talking about," Rukia said, her voice straining. "My brother, a Gotei 13 captain who, from my understanding, learned from the Goddess of Flash, who hit Ichigo with a fake Senka, who is regarded as a veritable prodigy even amongst the Kuchiki. What chance does Ichigo stand?"

"If you don't believe in him? A snowball's chance on the hottest day in Hell."

Rukia froze for a minute, her brows drawn together. "What?"

"Rukia, the kid is your partner, isn't he?" Renji said, scowling as he finally pulled his goggles up, exposing his annoyed stare. "So what good does it do him to doubt him? You should be believing in him, supporting him. Even if he can't beat Captain Kuchiki, he can damn well make it a hard fight."

_Though being honest with you, it'll be a miracle if he even lasts two minutes against the Captain, _Renji's inner cynic replied. _Come on, Ren, be honest with yourself. The captain regularly beats your ass and you know there's no way Kurosaki's better than you, not yet._

"So have a little faith in him," Renji continued, mentally kicking the mental construct in the metaphorical balls. "All right?"

Rukia frowned, but sighed, and shook her head. "I still don't like this, Renji. My brother doesn't do this kind of thing without a reason. Ichigo must have done something."

"If he did, the Captain sure as hell isn't telling anyone what it was," Renji said, walking off with a sigh. "If you think you can worm it out of him, you can find out yourself. Now, if you'll excuse me, I would like to get drunk. I've been working all day, in the heat, and that's really tiring."

Rukia followed him for a bit, then asked, loudly enough for him to hear, "And what about that suggestion that I made to you yesterday? Do you think you're going to be able to do it?"

Renji stopped walking for a moment, and put his right hand to his forehead, rubbing his skin with the heel of his hand.

"It's not illegal, but if I get away with it then you can consider it a miracle. What with this duel nonsense I don't know if Captain Kuchiki will approve it anytime soon. If he passes it on to the Captain-General, then there's no way in hell it's going to happen."

With that question somewhat answered, Rukia hid her disappointment at the margin of uncertainty and nodded once, though she knew Renji couldn't see it. "Then I'll see you Wednesday!"

Renji raised a tattooed arm and kept on walking. "Yeah."

* * *

**9 PM**

**Rukongai, Soul Society: North District 1, Ya Sakazuki**

The work hard, play hard ethic was alive and well in the Seireitei, as the behavior of Rangiku Matsumoto, Sentarou Kotsubaki and Kiyone Kotetsu would attest to.

One such location for after-work hours carousing was the Ya Sakazuki, appropriately drawing on the legend of the eight-headed Orochi snake that was intoxicated by eight cups of wine. It was a well-established bar which had plenty of tables and a selection of drinks that ranged from throat-burning alcohol to the highest class of sake, the kind that took two years worth of salary to afford.

That Sunday night, a little more than half-an-hour after talking with Rukia, Renji was sitting back with a cold glass of alcohol in his usual corner table near the back of the restaurant. He was accompanied by Ikkaku Madarame, who was sporting a fresh set of bandages and his usual wicked grin. Also along for the ride was Shuuhei Hisagi, the Lieutenant of the Ninth Division, Izuru Kira, lieutenant of the Third, Rangiku, and Kiyone.

"Man, that Kurosaki, he's a hellion," Ikkaku said with a laugh, drinking down another cup of sake. "Just barely pulled a win out on me today, but hot damn, he's strong. No doubt, when he dies? He'll be seated almost immediately. He's already going places, hell, but man!" He tapped one of the bandages around his head and laughed again. "When he gets his rematch with Yachiru, the whole damn Soul Society's gonna feel it."

"He seems a pleasant enough sort of person from what I saw of him at the meeting," Kira said. "He hasn't been to the Third Division yet, though. I'd like to have him stop by, but we haven't any reason to requisition any extra help."

Inwardly, Renji grimaced, rubbing his face. Ikkaku hadn't shut up about fighting with Ichigo and was so excited about winning the rematch, that he kept talking and talking and talking about every single detail, from the way Ichigo mixed up swordplay and Hakuda to how quickly Ichigo reacted to more or less every move Ikkaku made.

More impressive to Renji was that Ichigo had drawn his first fight with Ikkaku and then won the second one with only a few days turnaround. Having been a man of the Eleventh, and Ikkaku's disciple of sorts, Renji knew that Ikkaku was particularly difficult to impress but almost insanely mono-maniacal once he was impressed, as was being currently proven.

_And Ichigo can beat him. Maybe barely, but goddamn it, he beat Ikkaku. And Ikkaku can beat me when he's actually going close to fighting all-out. What the hell is Ichigo Kurosaki any damn way?_

Sighing, Renji waved around his glass loosely, but not sloppily; he was only slightly buzzed at most, and wasn't planning on getting any more hammered despite his warring feelings about the subject. "Yeah, he's all right. Cocky, but he's got a good heart. Works hard, too." He sighed and yawned a bit. "Still, after what I heard about him today, I'm a bit nervous."

Rangiku let out a squeal. "Heard about what, Renji? Do tell!"

Too late, Renji realized his mistake and smacked a hand into his face. _Dammit, idiot, idiot, you know she's the biggest goddamn gossip in all of Soul Society and you let that slip? Shit, am I more buzzed than I thought_? "No, it's nothing. Not important."

Rangiku pouted and leaned over the table, letting her bosom spill onto the table in front of him. Kira groaned and looked away, while Hisagi turned an interesting shade of red. "Renji~don't be mean. Share with us. Hmmm? Come now."

Despite himself, Renji turned just as red as Hisagi, and tried to avert his eyes from the impressive sight. "Really, Rangiku, cut it out. We're in public, you know? Show some decency."

Rangiku's pout became a frown as she edged closer to him, exposing her necklace running into her cleavage. "Renji...am I going to have to tell that big secret you made me swear to keep to myself? Because I will, you know. It's not fair that you start talking about something with your friends and then clam up all of a sudden."

Renji hissed, and glared angrily at her. "You wouldn't dare."

Rangiku's smile became devilish while the others began to look extremely uncomfortable. "Guys...you know how Renji gets tattoos as he does more jobs, right? Well he told me one that he was saving one spot for last. It's..."

Renji couldn't speak any faster if he'd been put on fast-forward and speed at the same time. "Captain Kuchiki is going to spar with Kurosaki on Wednesday! You can shut up now, Rangiku, thank you!"

Everyone stared blankly at Renji for a minute, and he paled, realizing that he'd all but yelled out something he was supposed to have kept to himself in a bar full of Soul Reapers.

"...son of a bitch."

And then, Rangiku smiled. Smiled very broadly, in fact. "A spar, hm? Interesting. I think I'll go to watch."

Renji groaned and slammed his head into the table, groaning. _Son of a bitch son of a bitch son of a bitch! Captain Kuchiki is gonna skin me. Skin me and burn the skin! Dammit!_

* * *

**Seireitei, Soul Society: The Kuchiki Manor, Byakuya Kuchiki's Room**

Having changed into his sleeping clothes little more than a moment ago, Byakuya's nose twitched uncomfortably as he removed the white _kanseikan _hairpieces from his black locks and put them down on his dresser.

"...this sensation, it's almost like a sneeze. Was someone speaking ill of me?"

Putting aside the odd feeling, he shook his head and moved towards his futon, his mind traveling back to the conversation he'd had with his sister shortly before dinner that night.

_As Byakuya walked out of the restroom, he felt Rukia's cool Spiritual Energy coming closer to him, and sighed. He could sense her anxiety, her annoyance, and her determination, though what exactly had caused her emotions to flare up so was beyond him._

_As soon as Rukia's purposeful stride brought her to a stop before him, she bowed deeply but shortly, still keeping her head inclined to show proper respect to her brother as master of the house and head of the family. "Byakuya-onii-sama! Please, forgive me for asking this, but what is it that Ichigo did to anger you enough to challenge him?"_

_Inwardly, Byakuya sighed as the answer to his mostly unspoken question dropped right into his lap. Outwardly, not even his eyebrow raised upwards as he looked down at Rukia, his mouth drawn into a flat line. "Nothing. I am not upset. I simply wish to test his strength."_

_Rukia kept her face just as neutral as he did. "Onii-sama, you're not the kind of person to act without a reason."_

_Again, Byakuya didn't respond, but mentally he raised his approximation of Rukia's observational skills. Considering that they didn't really talk very often, her noticing the aberrant parts of his behavior and calling him out on it, even as politely as she was doing it, was fairly impressive. "I see."_

_The silence stood between them for a full minute before Byakuya simply turned his back and continued on to the dining hall. Rukia opened her mouth to speak once more, but Byakuya interrupted her without even turning around._

"_My reasons are my own, and are no concern of yours. It is not your place to ask questions about my motives and choices. Tell no one of this. I don't want it to be a spectacle."_

As he laid down, Byakuya sighed again. He wasn't nervous or apprehensive in the slightest, but he had a suspicion that there was some part of all of this that was going to go very off course.

* * *

**Wednesday, July 28, 1:30 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Sixth Division Barracks**

The next few days were days that Ichigo and Rukia spent on the usual routine. Sunday, Ichigo got his chance to work with the other members of the Second Division in what basically amounted to stealth tag in the woods. Thanks to his hair and his massive amount of Spiritual Energy, staying hidden was...challenging, but as Soifon had suspected, his physical ability was well above most of the seated officers' own, despite his otherwise extremely pathetic showing in the exercise—once found, he would move quickly and deliberately, leaving behind quite a few of the others in the dust as he found a new hiding place.

Monday was Kidou training with Hinamori again. This time, though, the action was live, or about as live as it could get with spells that could kill Hollows in one shot when powered correctly. With no spells above double digits and no incantations on Ichigo's side, the spells were weakened enough to avoid any major trouble. On top of that, they finally took their practice outside, allowing Ichigo's face and fame to spread amongst the Fifth Division even more as he traded shots of White Lightning with Hinamori right in the sight of pretty much all of the division.

However, from Monday on, it had become increasingly obvious that news about the duel had spread somehow, as a few of the Second Division Reapers had asked Ichigo about it, as had Lieutenant Hinamori. When this became obvious, Rukia seemed to get extremely annoyed about it, but when pressed by Ichigo, said nothing aside from muttering something about "a disgusting spectacle" and "Byakuya-onii-sama is going to be livid".

On Wednesday afternoon, as Ichigo and Rukia stepped onto the grounds of the Sixth Division after an extra-long morning patrol, they were greeted by a host of Reapers from several divisions flocking around the building, all whispering and chattering excitedly.

"Oh, goddamn it, I should have known this was going to happen from the moment I started having people ask me what my problem was with Captain Kuchiki," Ichigo muttered. "Now it's a big show. It's like all of the goddamn Seireitei turned out hoping to see me get my ass kicked."

"When I find out whoever told them, I'll have to have a nice conversation with them," Rukia responded, ignoring the stares and whispers that the other Reapers were giving them. "My brother did not want this to be a spectacle, but I don't know why he hasn't told them to leave."

Ichigo sighed and looked up at the main building, and paled as he discovered the reason why Byakuya hadn't used his clout as a captain to get all of the rubberneckers away from his Division. All the Captains and Lieutenants, barring Byakuya and Renji, were there, standing in front of the main door to the building, on the porch and under the awning. Even the Captain-General.

Ichigo massaged his temples and groaned. "Oh, good god, old man Yamamoto is here and so is everyone else. Day's freaking complete, now. Dammit!"

Rukia stared at him, scandalized. "Old man...? What the hell are you going on about now? You can't refer to the Captain-General so casually!"

Ichigo shrugged. "Kyouraku-san does it."

"Well, he happens to be Captain-General Yamamoto's student," Rukia hissed. "As in someone that the Captain-General trained **personally. **I think a few liberties are allowed in that case."

"Well, I know that. I won't call him that to his face or anything, you know?"

Rukia rubbed her face, praying very quietly to all the gods that existed that she didn't lose her patience in front of all of these people. "All right, let's go present ourselves and get this over with."

* * *

When Ichigo and Rukia finally stood before Yamamoto and the other captains, the Captain-General nodded gently at them both, still appearing at rest despite the heat and the restless buzzing of the crowd. "Kurosaki, Kuchiki."

"Captain-General," they replied smoothly, bowing.

"I'm expecting to see a good bout today, Kurosaki. Don't disappoint us."

Ichigo nodded once, his expression serious while he restrained the urge to point out that the "bout" wasn't supposed to even be so greatly publicized in the first place. "I'll do my best, sir." He then turned to where the crowd had cleared a circular space, which was where Renji and Byakuya were waiting; he could see from where he stood that the captain did not have his sword at his side. After a moment of staring at the spot, he removed Zangetsu, placing it in front of the Captain-General, and made his way down there, pushing through the crowd. Rukia followed him, uncomfortable amongst all of the high-ranking officers, and soon got lost in the sea of black and white formed by her fellow Reapers.

"How did all of this come about anyway?" Kurotsuchi asked, muttering in irritation at the heat. His only real interest in this event was to gauge Ichigo's growth and add all the data that he got from it to the observation file he had begun to gather on the strawberry-blonde boy.

"The word simply spread like wildfire, as I recall it," Aizen said. "My division members heard of it somehow, and brought it to my attention. I wanted to see how Kurosaki-kun would do."

Some of the other captains, particularly Zaraki, Kyouraku, Ukitake, and Komamura, all nodded at the second part of the statement. Ise, Rangiku, and the other female lieutenants shared glances, but said nothing else. Their plants were in the crowd, armed with cameras, and ready to go. The ads for the _One Strawberry Protector_ photo shoot were out in Seireitei Communication as of Monday evening, and the preorder numbers were in the tens of thousands, pushing almost a hundred thousand.

That meant they needed lots of photos. Lots of them. And what better opportunity than to capture one of the Gotei's most popular captains in combat with the rising star from Karakura Town?

* * *

Meanwhile, in the actual 'ring', Ichigo and Byakuya stood across from each other, with Renji in-between them, standing behind a bundle swathed in canvas that lay on the ground. At the very edge of the circle behind him, Ichigo could sense Ikkaku's familiar reddish shroud of Spiritual Energy, and dimly recognized a lot of the foremost faces in the crowd as members of the Eleventh Division. Most of them were passing bills between each other, but there were a lot of nods and grins directed towards him.

Ichigo nodded stiffly and slightly in response to most of the acknowledgments, but could feel his annoyance-induced headache growing by the moment. _They're even betting on this, it looks like. Good grief, this is out of control._

"All right, Kurosaki, pay attention," Renji said. "I'm gonna explain the rules to you once, because it's really hot out here and the expression on your face tells me you'd rather be done with this like I want to be." He bent down and opened the canvas to reveal two well-kept, firm-looking shinai. "These will be your only melee weapons in this duel. Captain Kuchiki has restricted the use of any Kidou spells with a large area of effect due to the...spectator presence that was not accounted for. Hakuda and Flash Steps are fair game, but should either of you leave this circle intentionally, it's considered a forfeit. The first man to admit their loss or to be knocked completely unconscious is the loser. As the referee, I reserve the right to name a winner, and judge when either of you two violates the rules or validity of the challenge. Any terms of the penalties for the loser may be set after the duel is complete."

Ichigo nodded once, and Byakuya simply adjusted his weight, continuing to maintain his ennui. Renji then picked up the practice weapons and gave them to the combatants before taking up the canvas cloth. As Renji stepped back, Ichigo saw Rukia push her way to the front of the crowd on the side of the circle opposite him, behind Byakuya. When he met her eyes, she looked at him with undisguised worry for a moment.

He shook his head slightly, but kept his expression neutral, not wanting to draw Byakuya's attention in any way that might cause a problem. He then focused his attention on the Sixth Division's captain once again, and took a standard kendo position, leveling the tip of his shinai at Byakuya's throat.

"Let's make this a good one, Captain Kuchiki."

Byakuya simply mirrored Ichigo's actions and slipped into a ready position, only without saying a word. Once it was clear that they were both ready to fight, Renji raised his hand, and stilled the restless breath he wanted to take. He had to be focused, now, so that he could see the fight in its entirety and respond accordingly and when necessary.

"Fight well, gentlemen." The red-head dropped his hand down and held it still once his fingertips pointed to the ground. "Begin!"

As expected, Ichigo attacked first, yelling fiercely as he slashed down at Byakuya's head. The Captain smoothly side-stepped the obvious blow, only to see Ichigo whirl around to follow him with another swing, this one horizontal and aimed at the ribs. Byakuya angled his shinai and blocked the blow successfully, then brushed Ichigo's shinai aside and stepped in, striking Ichigo's chest with the hilt of his own weapon.

Ichigo coughed and stepped back a bit, but Byakuya didn't press his advantage, and let Ichigo recover. After wiping some spittle away from his mouth, the Deputy Reaper took a hacking breath and steadied himself, staring confidently at Byakuya as if he hadn't just been hit.

The captain made no sign of nervousness or worry, and Ichigo bit back his frustration at the lack of response. The crowd buzzed slightly, and a few beads of sweat inched down Ichigo's temples as the sun shone down on him.

Then, there was a whoosh, a barely-sensed burst of Byakuya's Spiritual Pressure, and then Byakuya was gone.

At least, that's how it appeared to most of the observers. For Ichigo, for Rukia, for Renji, for the captains and lieutenants, and for Ikkaku, it was clearly not that simple.

Ichigo's ability to sense Spiritual Pressure had increased significantly since his first brief clash with Byakuya months ago. The fact that Ichigo had even sensed the captain's Spiritual Pressure and deduced that he was preparing a Flash Step was proof of that. Moreover, Ichigo's physical perceptions were very slowly becoming adapted to high-speed combat movement.

Thanks to that, Ichigo could, however briefly, see a blur of black, white, and lime green rushing towards him, even though mostly everyone else saw nothing from the moment Byakuya moved. Moreover, Ichigo's memories of the only time he saw Byakuya demonstrate his tremendous skill told him precisely what was coming next—the Senka, the extremely fast two-strike technique that brought Ichigo to his knees.

Instinctively, Ichigo moved backward as Byakuya briefly flashed back into his sights; the movement was sound, though barely so, as Byakuya's thrust very nearly struck home at his chest. The captain's moment of visibility passed, and Ichigo then felt the Spiritual Pressure, again faintly, behind him.

_I knew it, it is the front that comes first!_ Ichigo thought, grinning. _But I can't spin to block, and the shinai's not broad enough to do it properly, so...!_

Without pausing, Ichigo ducked, and to his satisfaction, he heard the sharp _whoosh_ of Byakuya's shinai thrusting through the air over his head. Still crouched low, Ichigo stuck his left leg out as he turned sharply to the left; the result was a vicious sweeping kick that Byakuya couldn't avoid, and Byakuya grunted in surprise and annoyance as he hit the ground hard.

To those observing that lacked the skill to follow all of this, it happened in the space of a second. To those that could follow it, it _seemed _to take place in five or six of those.

Both parties were equally flabbergasted, and it showed almost immediately in the audible gasps and yells that rippled through the startled crowd.

Ikkaku cackled fiendishly and smacked the back of a Soul Reaper standing next to him. "See, Yumichika? What'd I tell you? The kid's gotten a hell of a lot better since his little girlfriend healed him up after Yachiru kicked his ass?"

Yumichika coughed indignantly in response, brushing off Ikkaku's hand and straigtening the orange muffler around his shoulders. A few thin, multicolored feathers decorated his right eyelashes and right eyebrow, and his purple hair was cut short just below his jaw; the smoothness and brightness of his skin made him look distinctly feminine.

"Yes, yes, yes," Yumichika said, idly waving about a hand. "but he hardly seems to be the elegant type, strong as he may have become. And besides that, he's facing a captain, and his lack of experience shows. I'm not so easily impressed, Ikkaku."

Ikkaku's grin grew wider. "Then shut your piehole and keep watching, idiot, and you will be. He hasn't even gotten started yet."

When Byakuya got back to his feet, Ichigo rushed in again, but this time he had his right hand free. Noting this, Byakuya let Ichigo come, and then struck at Ichigo's shinai with a smooth, two-handed blow, expecting to disarm Ichigo. To his surprise, Ichigo let the practice weapon drop out of his left hand, and sunk his right fist directly into Byakuya's stomach before following up with a hard punch from his left hand, striking Byakuya dead in the face and leaving a rapidly-darkening bruise on Byakuya's pale cheek. He then took the barest of seconds to bend down and get his shinai, and in that second, Byakuya flashed forward with another Flash Step, deliberately stopping it in mid-stride so that he was just above Ichigo.

"You were careless."

And with that, Byakuya swung his shinai in a sharp arc; even with the comparatively weakened force of only one hand behind the strike, Ichigo felt his ribs crack where the shinai struck them, and he tumbled gracelessly to the ground as Byakuya landed. However, the numerous occasions where he had been forced to break his falls with Soifon kicked themselves to the forefront of his mind, and he managed to roll, if clumsily, away from Byakuya. He eventually got to a semi-crouching ready position before standing up in a rush, grimacing at the spike of pain that hit his injured side.

Once more, Byakuya found himself revisiting the assessment he'd made of Ichigo, taking into account the boy's quick reactions to his probing attacks. _Tenacious. Unmistakably so. His reflexes are definitely the equal of Renji's, and his physical strength is above average. Unorthodox in his attack strategies, as well, more than likely a result of his time amongst the Eleventh Division. _His lip curled slightly._ A shame. He handles a sword properly enough with kendo, and the last thing we need is another barbaric fighter like that fool Zaraki and his ilk._

"That was rather interesting, what you did just now," Byakuya said, gently touching his new injury. "Foolish, though. I do not think you have the skill to match an opponent with a weapon while using only your bare hands. Especially not one of my caliber."

"I get into fights with all kinds of idiots back at home, and sometimes they'll come at you with everything except the kitchen sink," Ichigo replied. "Me, I had nothing but my hands to take them on with, and you better believe that I win every time." He coughed slightly, and refused to let his hands spasm in response to the pain from his rib, instead gripping his shinai with two hands. "Though you're not a street punk or an idiot. I'll have to take you much more seriously."

Byakuya arched an eyebrow. "You imply, then, that you've been underestimating me. Foolish."

Ichigo's response was to charge forward, holding his shinai parallel to the ground and the guard just in front of his face. Byakuya spread his legs slightly wider, and when Ichigo's attack came down on his head, he blocked it calmly, and countered with another thrust of his shinai. Ichigo managed to side-step the counter-attack, and pulled one hand off his weapon to punch Byakuya, from the left. With a burst of Spiritual Presssure, Byakuya Flash Stepped to the right, away from the blow, and shifted his shinai to his right hand, pointing at Ichigo's injured ribs with the middle and pointer fingers of his left hand.

"Hadou number 1, Thrust."

Ichigo tried to move, but right as his foot got off the ground he felt the Thrust spell push onto his bones in one violent burst. The cracking sound of further injury echoed in the hot air; the crowd behind him moved away as he flew backward and landed roughly on the ground, kicking up some dust. Though the pain was almost blinding, Ichigo bit back the curses and slammed his free hand down on the ground instead, pushing himself up to crouching level.

And when he did, Byakuya was already in front of him, swinging the shinai down on his head.

For only the briefest of moments, Ichigo had no idea what to do.

Then, in his mind's eye, he saw a blue sphere of condensed Spiritual Pressure, and quickly, he began to gather what Pressure he could while maintaining that image.

"REPULSE!"

It was hastily done, and visibly unstable thanks to leaving out part of the name, but the sphere that was the Repulse spell formed ever so briefly above Ichigo's head, right as Byakuya's shinai struck. True to its name, the spell pushed back violently on Byakuya's shinai, and knocked him off balance for a moment, before it unmade itself in a violent flash. Ichigo then clenched his fist, forced himself up, and smashed a wicked uppercut into the underside of Byakuya's chin, yelling savagely, before smashing his shinai into Byakuya's shoulder with extreme force, forcing the captain to stagger away from Ichigo.

The weapon held, and Byakuya made no sounds indicating he'd been injured save for muted, almost inaudible grunts, but the damage Ichigo had done was clear. One of Byakuya's teeth had actually managed to cut his lip, and his shoulder was actively growing numb now.

Pain was still written across Ichigo's face, though, and his breathing was irregular while his face twitched every now and again, since now his ribs were practically alight. However, the rest of the crowd paid no heed to that; they were currently abuzz with what they'd just seen.

"He cast it so quickly!"

"Right at the middle of his forehead, without calling it fully? Pretty smart!"

"I still can't believe he's managed to hit Captain Kuchiki, let alone make him bleed!"

At the porch of the Sixth Division's main building, a few of the captains and lieutenants were having a similar, if moderately subdued, reaction. Zaraki and Yachiru were both smiling broadly, while Kyouraku, Ukitake, Ise, Sentarou, and Kiyone all looked mildly impressed. Captain Aizen nodded with a humming sound, while Hinamori was practically beaming at the sight of Ichigo's quick reaction and reprisal. In contrast, both Kurotsuchis looked relatively unimpressed, as did Tousen, Komamura, and Soifon, though in Soifon's case she was hiding the secret stab of pride she felt at how he'd mixed hand-to-hand into his full attack. The other lieutenants settled on 'confused' or 'curious'.

"I really don't get this guy," Hisagi muttered, scratching his wild mess of black hair. "He throws himself at the captain knowing he's going to get hurt, and then turns it around to strike back. But he can use spells, so why not try attacking from a distance first? Even though Captain Kuchiki's holding back, Kurosaki should realize that he's still outmatched."

"The presence of the crowd is what's tying their hands," Hitsugaya said. "Even a White Lightning spell could be dangerous or fatal for the spectators." He stood a little taller, and gently wiped a stray bead of sweat from his cheek. "That was probably why Captain Kuchiki wanted this to be a private affair. Perhaps then they might have used zanpakutou, even."

Unohana's ever-present smile once more took on a surprisingly frightening cast, though it was not directed at Hitsugaya or anyone else in particular. "I would hope not. This match is already going to require that Kurosaki-kun comes to the Fourth Division immediately after he's done fighting, and a match with live steel would have only ended worse if Captain Kuchiki felt provoked. I can tell from the way he's favoring that rib that it's at least partially broken now."

A sudden flareup of Spiritual Pressure from both combatants drew the Captains' and Lieutenants' attention back to the fight, and all talk stopped once they saw what was going on.

Ichigo was on the offensive again, but this time, Byakuya was actively countering Ichigo's attacks almost immediately after blocking this time, no longer content to wait for Ichigo to mess up but more interested in forcibly making an opening to capitalize on. In addition, Ichigo had completely abandoned his kendo techniques, opting to continue firing off a jab or two with his left hand while swinging the shinai around in his right.

The approach was a bit dangerous, and it showed in the way that Ichigo would take hits to the shin or the forearms every so often showed that. However, it was paying off in its own ways, as he managed to smack Byakuya before or after every other blow he took.

"Looks like a miniature Zaraki out there, doesn't he?" Ichimaru said, broadening his grin. "And he's actually got Kuchiki pushing to counter. It's almost frightening."

"Well I sure as hell didn't teach him anything," Zaraki said. "I just let him run around with the boys until he passed out. Whatever he does using that sword, he came up with it himself and won fights by doing it."

Ichigo growled as he forced a clash between himself and Byakuya; though it was quite difficult, he managed to hold Byakuya's shinai back with the one hand, concentrating his Spiritual Pressure sharply. Yellow light crackled in his open palm, and in an unexpected move he slammed it into Byakuya's chest.

"Bakudou number 4, Crawling Rope!"

The bands of yellow light shot out, ensnaring Byakuya tightly, and Ichigo took the chance to grip his shinai with both hands before smashing Byakuya over the head with it, pumping a bit of Spiritual Energy into it on instinct. The blow was crippling, causing Byakuya's head to duck, but right when Ichigo thought victory was in his grasp, Byakuya flexed his arms and Spiritual Pressure, breaking the bonds effortlessly, and shoved his hand into Ichigo's left armpit.

Ichigo felt a blasting pain drill through his shoulder, as numbness spread from the point of impact. His left arm became completely numb, and he heard people yell and shout, possibly even mutter something about "White Lightning".

_He did this to me without calling the name of the spell? Dammit...!_

From where he stood, Renji hissed sympathetically and shook his head. He knew it was done.

Unfortunately for Ichigo, he hadn't come to any such conclusion, and with his still-functioning right arm, Ichigo swung his arm in a final, last-ditch attack; unfortunately, the growing pain kept him from focusing properly, and Byakuya laid him out with a proper elbow to the face, knocking him down.

"Enough," Byakuya said, pointing his shinai directly into Ichigo's sweating, pained face. "Your shoulder is of no use to you now. However evenly you were performing with me, you cannot now."

Ichigo slapped his right hand onto Byakuya's shinai and gripped it tightly, causing the bamboo to groan ominously. "It's not over yet."

Byakuya shook his head, and once more pointed his index and pointer fingers at Ichigo. "Bakudou number 61, Six Rod-Light Restraint."

The yellow spark came and went. In short order the six rectangular rods smashed into Ichigo's stomach, and every part of him went dead as Byakuya pulled his shinai out of Ichigo's grip. The boy choked back a frustrated curse, and when he focused on the spell, he realized that in his pain-delirious, severely crippled state, he couldn't possibly break the spell, let alone counter-attack.

_But...damn it, I said I was going to win. Why can't I...? Just a little bit more...!_

"Kurosaki, it's done," Renji said loudly, cutting into Ichigo's thoughts. "Your shoulder's a mess, your ribcage is broken, and you're bruised like a tomato. If you keep trying to fight, Captain Unohana is likely to come over here and force you to stop. Captain Kuchiki's won this one."

Ichigo glared at Renji, but the red-headed lieutenant's gaze was firm, and would brook no argument. With a final sigh, Ichigo closed his eyes, coughing slightly.

"Fine, I concede."

Byakuya then gave his shinai to Renji, continuing to stare down impassively at a still-immobile Ichigo. At length, the Captain said, "You have indeed grown, though you are still a bit rough around the edges. Should you be willing, you may come to the Sixth Division during your days training with the Eleventh Division, and I will give you proper instruction in sword combat. It's all well and good to swing a sword against barbarians and win that way, but if you ever expect to be a match for myself or Abarai, you will need a little more finesse than that."

With that, Byakuya turned on his heel and began to walk off, but stopped before walking into the parting crowd. "Abarai. I have reviewed your request for assignment in Karakura Town. I have approved it, and I doubt that it will be reviewed or denied by the Captain-General given your work ethic. However, I will not be covering your paperwork for you if you receive the assignment. That will remain your responsibility."

And with that, he went on, leaving Ichigo to stare up at Renji in confusion while Isane and Unohana made their way through the crowd to attend to Ichigo personally.

"You applied for a post in Karakura Town?"

To his credit, Renji didn't look bashful or embarrassed in the slightest. "It was a favor. And it's not so much a post in Karakura Town as it is extra supervision of you. Helping Rukia out, and stuff. Assuming that the request is approved, that is."

"So Rukia asked you to do it."

Renji snorted. "None of yer goddamn business," he grumbled. "The point is that I'm trying to help you out, too, so shut up and deal. If I get the assignment even on a part-time basis, then that might be less time you have to spend on patrol."

Ichigo sighed. "...yeah, I guess."

They stayed there in silence until Isane and Unohana arrived, at which point Ichigo let his eyes close.

Sleep was merciful.

* * *

The captains and lieutenants, now sans Unohana and Isane as well, gave one final glance towards the former battlefield. Kurotsuchi and Nemu were the first to depart, with the clown-faced captain muttering something about Ichigo's increased Spiritual Energy and how he had entries to make.

"That kid...he could be scary some day, I think," Ichimaru said, chuckling lightly as he looked down at where Ichigo had left his sword in front of Yamamoto. "What would he have been like with his zanpakutou and that Getsuga thingy, I wonder?" He looked up at the others again, lingering for just a moment on Aizen and Hinamori, then nodded politely. "Come on, Kira. We've got work to do."

Kira bowed. "Yessir."

As they departed, Aizen, Hitsugaya, and Hinamori looked at Ichimaru's back, with concern, distrust, and fear marring their faces.

However, neither of them said a word, to each other or to anyone else.

They simply watched Ichimaru leave.

* * *

******END OF CLASS**

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Ichigo beating Byakuya? Much as I'm sure many of you wanted to see it, it wasn't happening, sorry. Remember, ladies and gentlemen, that this is not the Ichigo that has trained for a week to save a waifish little girl from getting murdered for something she didn't do. However, do take note of the little tricks that he used this chapter—they are the best indicator of what kind of fighting you may expect from Ichigo in the future._

_This one was tough to finish, too, mostly because of the duel. I know people have been on me before about how slowly Ichigo grows in this story. Part of it, as I just said, has everything to do with not going through exactly the same things that he went through in the real story. However, much like the Ikkaku fight, this was meant to show that Ichigo has indeed come a long way from where he started, and I feel that managing to lay hands on, and slightly injure, a Captain (even if said captain is, as I implied with Hitsugaya's line, isn't quite treating the fight as a serious, life-threatening bout), is very much a sign of that growth._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_Nothin' this chapter._

_Student Review Corner:_

_Seirin-taichou (Ch. 18): Glad to see that the Quincy ability explanation really made sense. I had to sit and think of a way to explain things that was internally consistent, and the resonance thing effectively wrote itself once I hashed out how I wanted to describe it._

_The Dragon Bard (Ch. 14): I went with what was explicitly stated on Bleach Wiki for that reference point about the Menos' strength level (kind of sketchy, I know, but I have not yet pinned down the precise chapter that corroborates the statement as I wrote it). If, in later research, I find support for your statement, I'll go back and change it._

_Laughingspider (Ch. 18): I admit, I did get a large part of Rukia's changing characterization in Chapter 18 from seeing what happened in the latest chapters of Bleach. Though, I will admit now, I'm a bit worried about whether or not I did it too quickly because of my excitement regarding the re-emergence of the Soul Society characters. I want it to be a consistent process, not something that comes all at once, and there are times where I feel I could have done a better job of showing how she grew, not just telling you all how it happened. Then again, sticking too hard to "show, don't tell" is a problem all of its own._

_DarthVella (Ch. 18): Well I'm glad you feel so connected to the characters and are enjoying the story overall. It really helps me out to hear things like that. As for Tatsuki, well, you're not the only one that's going to enjoy seeing where she goes with her new abilities, though by my own admission, it may only come to really shine in Second Semester._

_Well, Substitute School has officially broken the 200 mark as far as alerts and favorites are concerned, so that was a bit of a pleasant surprise for me. I'm still looking for a beta, but am a bit skittish about actually asking someone to proofread my chapters before I publish them—still, I think it'll help inform my writing a bit better, and stop some of the sillier typos or funny phrases that I write without realizing, so I'll keep looking._

_I don't think there will be a bonus chapter this month, but September is right around the corner anyway so you won't have long to wait if that's the case. Since I feel that we've gotten a solid ground for what Ichigo's interactions with Soul Society are like, we can move into the more intriguing parts of the plot, and try for what I think of as a "split-focus" storytelling angle as we move into the rising action and climax of this arc. It's a little new for me, but it's a skill I need to practice, and I'm sure that I can do it if I'm careful enough. As a result, the chapters will probably run long again, though if any of them get particularly heavy I'll be splitting them as necessary._

_So, I'll see you next class with Chapters 20 and 21. Till then, stay cool._

_~ZS_


	20. Lesson 20: Workplace Violence 101

Substitute School, First Semester: General Education

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 20: Workplace Violence 101, or The Unexpected Always Expects You_

* * *

_Normally, I don't do this, but just a heads-up: as is my penchant by now, there were some calendar shenanigans to fix before this chapter went up. It's been fixed, and today's Teacher's Notes will clarify the issue._

* * *

**Wednesday, August 11, 9 AM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase**

Two weeks had gone by since Ichigo's duel with Captain Kuchiki, and in that time, not much changed and yet nothing was quite the same.

Now, wherever he went, Ichigo was followed by whispers. Most of the talk that he heard concerned the duel, and often focused on how fearlessly he'd faced Captain Kuchiki despite being "hopelessly outmatched". Some of the conversations were reverent re-visitations of his battles against the Menos Grande, and the Grand Fisher less frequently, often inflated to such extremes that he was the one taking down both Hollows single-handed and in one blow.

The most relentless pursuers, though, were not the whispers but his admirers. Though they didn't try to approach him, Ichigo knew them when he saw them—mostly women, all Soul Reapers, and definitely paying a lot of attention to him that he really didn't want or care about. Every time he passed by a group of Reapers and nodded to them, even if said group was more of a pair, they either gasped and returned the bow quickly (if they were fans and weren't in the Eleventh), or grinned at him, wordlessly promising a good fight once they got the chance to get their hands on him (if they were in the Eleventh, fans or no fans).

For his part, Ichigo had yet to take up Byakuya on his offers of training, and yet on the off occasion where the captain of the Sixth ran into Ichigo, things were less tense and Ichigo oftentimes got the feeling that Byakuya wasn't regarding him with as much contempt or disinterest as before.

On the home front, things were significantly less exciting. Renji's request to transfer to Karakura as a supplementary supervisor had not been denied by Byakuya, but did eventually have to go to the Captain-General's desk for review. Due to some other administrative issues, Yamamoto had yet to even review the request, so for the time being Ichigo and Rukia were the only ones working the Karakura beat.

On the morning of Wednesday, August 11, morning patrol went as it usually did, wherein Ichigo and Rukia swept Karakura Town from the southwest to the northeast. Along the way, they made customary short stops at the homes of Ichigo's friends and Ishida's place, mostly to check up on them if they were home (which they often weren't); on this particular day the only person they caught up with was Tatsuki, leaving her house right as they passed overhead.

She stopped jogging down the street, her wild hair barely swept back by the wind, and her breathing speed slightly elevated, as she watched Ichigo and Rukia land in front of her. In the back of her mind, she swore silently. Normally she was gone and at Urahara's shop earlier than this, precisely because she knew from experience that Ichigo and Rukia stopped by to see her whenever they could, and that she needed to be gone when they were at her house.

"Hey, Tatsuki. How've you been?" Ichigo asked as he stood up from his landing. "Haven't seen you in a while, you're never around when I call your place or stop by."

"Just doing some work with the guys from the dojo, trying to stay in shape for when competitions start back up again," Tatsuki replied. "I haven't run into any Hollows, so you and the short-stack are doing a pretty good job."

Rukia narrowed her eyes slightly at the crack about her height, but Ichigo missed his partner's reaction entirely. "And what about Chad and Orihime? I haven't seen them since around this time last week and they don't pick up too often either."

"I talk to Orihime almost every day, but she doesn't really tell me anything about what she's up to," Tatsuki said, fighting the urge to frown at herself for toeing the line so closely. "Sado, I'm nowhere near as close to, and you know that."

Ichigo shrugged, conceding the point. "Well, considering...what's been going on, I figured you guys would talk a little bit more often, is all."

Tatsuki sighed and shrugged. "When I talk to Orihime, we try not to talk about it," she said, rubbing her bicep, just below the armband, absentmindedly, briefly thinking about what had been going on the last two weeks, and what she'd come so close to feeling lately. "We don't like to dwell on it."

The girl's sobriety was enough to pass the message along to Ichigo, and he coughed somewhat awkwardly, diverting his gaze downward.

"Ichigo. We need to go, we're behind on our schedule. Come on."

At those words from his partner, Ichigo perked up and nodded, and managed to grin somewhat apolgetically at Tatsuki. "Sorry, Tatsuki. Duty calls and everything." He turned on his heel and followed behind a departing Rukia, saying, "I'll see you around, OK? Take care."

"Yeah," Tatsuki called, somewhat half-heartedly, as she watched her old karate partner and friend dash off to the east. "Later."

Once he and Rukia were gone, she scowled and rubbed the heel of her hand into her forehead, using her other hand to pull out her cellphone and dial Urahara's number.

"Dammit."

A few moments later, Tatsuki's phone was at her ear as the other line picked up.

"_Hello, this is the Urahara Shop," _Kai's voice replied. _"How can I help you today?"_

"Kai, it's Tatsuki. Let Urahara know I'm going to be late today. Gotta duck Ichigo and Rukia. They're out on patrol right now, so if I head out for Mitsumiya, they'll see me. Are Sado, Ishida, and Orihime there already?"

The boy's tone brightened somewhat as he continued speaking._"Yeah, Tatsu-nee, they are. Since the boss said that you guys would probably break through soon, they came extra-early this morning."_ He chuckled a little bit. _"Though I wonder why you weren't here on time, normally you beat everyone here in the mornings. Were you out on a hot date or something last night and forgot to set your alarm to wake up?"_

"Just pass along the message for me, please?" Tatsuki asked, biting back a rumbling growl; the reminder that the moment she'd worked so hard for was pushed further out of her reach for the time being was not exactly conducive to a good mood. "I won't be that late."

Her free hand tightened into a fist.

"Not when I'm so close."

* * *

**11:15 AM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Thirteenth Division Barracks**

After an incident-free patrol, Ichigo and Rukia made their way to Soul Society around 11 o'clock, emerging on the grounds of the Thirteenth Division. However, they hadn't been there for all of a few moments, much less gone inside, before Kiyone and Sentarou rushed up to them with an important message; training with Soifon had been semi-canceled for the day as she was busy taking care of some disciplinary issues in her own Division.

"However," Kiyone said, with her usual beaming (and thankfully, not drunken) smile, "we do have another job for you to do. It seems that Captain Komamura was really impressed by what you did two weeks ago and wants you to go over and do some things with the new recruits over at the Seventh Division!"

Ichigo's scowl became mildly perplexed (and a bit annoyed, considering that he was missing out on training time that he was at least partially looking forward to). "When does he need me there by?"

Kiyone raised her pointer finger, ready to answer, and then paused, her mouth still frozen in an open smile as she desperately tried to recall the answer to Ichigo's question.

"11:15," Sentarou said, sighing at Kiyone's forgetfulness. "You should probably head over there now, you're going to be late enough as it is."

Ichigo checked the clock on his Soul Phone, then pulled up the map, then let loose with several vile swearwords as he turned and dashed away from the Thirteenth's barracks. Rukia watched him go with a frown, and then turned to Kiyone and Sentarou.

"Where's Captain Ukitake? Is he well today?"

Kiyone regained control of herself and nodded in response to Rukia's question. "He's resting a bit right now; we made him take his medicine, and Captain Unohana told us to make sure he doesn't go anywhere until he's stayed off his feet for at least an hour and a half."

After a moment of silent thought, Rukia nodded as well. "When is Ichigo supposed to be finished at the Seventh?"

Sentarou adjusted the rope tied around his forehead and wiped a bit of sweat from his brow. "Right around two or three."

"Then I'll go get him and bring him here to help do some cleaning once he's finished there. In the meantime, I'll be doing Jinzen in the training room. Let me know when it's 2:00 so I can leave for the Seventh. I'm going to take him somewhere."

"No prob, Rukia," Kiyone said, beaming.

* * *

**11:55 AM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Seventh Division Barracks**

Ichigo grunted as he tightened the knot around one of the strings that kept the shinai he was holding in place. As it turned out, the actual event he was needed for wasn't starting for a while yet, so his mad-cross Seireitei dash hadn't done much but get him there at around 11:45 or so, when his trainees would be ready for him at noon.

Since he was early, Lieutenant Iba had roped him into an equipment check prior to the start of his session with the recruits. After showing Ichigo how to check the shinai strings and tighten them up so that the wrappings keeping the bamboo practice weapon didn't come loose, Iba sat down with Ichigo in one of the practice rooms to help him out and double-check the Deputy Reaper's work, as well as drum up a little conversation.

Beside either man were a few racks to hold shinai sized for men and women, as the latter were a bit shorter than the former. Each shinai was taken from the rack and put back once deemed to be worthy, and it was only occasionally that Iba or Ichigo had to get up and pick one up or put one back.

"So, it's been how long since you started this gig?" Iba asked, slowly twirling a shinai and pulling the string to test its tightness.

"Almost three months, actually," Ichigo replied, after a pause to tighten the knot a little more. "Right around the middle of May, if I remember it correctly."

"Got a girlfriend back home?"

Ichigo set the shinai he'd been holding onto the rack and picked up another one, running his fingers along the string and pressing together the slats of bamboo, trying to test if they were moving too much. "Nah. Never had the time for that and there isn't anyone really all that interested in me anyway."

Iba chuckled and got up to put the shinai he'd just checked back on the rack. "Not even that partner of yours?" he said over his shoulder, arching his blunt eyebrows over his ever-present sunglasses and grinning.

"I hope you're joking, sir," Ichigo replied, not even bothering to look up at Iba as he began to work on the knot and string. "I'm fairly certain that Captain Kuchiki would rather eat a dead mouse than let me romantically approach his sister. Besides that, doesn't the Gotei 13 have a problem with that kind of relationship between Soul Reapers?"

"Actually, they don't," Iba said, and Ichigo blinked in surprise before turning to look at Iba. "So long as you're doing your job, you could be screwin' Captain Unohana and no one would give a damn."

Ichigo shuddered involuntarily, not because he found the idea of sleeping with Captain Unohana or Iba's wording repulsive per se, but because the idea of Captain Unohana having sex in general freaked him out just a bit—it was roughly equivalent to the kind of feeling that people got when they realized that their parents had to have sex in order to conceive them.

Iba ignored Ichigo's reaction and kept on talking."If I knew any couples off the top of my head, I'd tell you, but these days no one really seems interested in that kind of thing—married to the job, you know?" He let off a short bark of laughter and sighed. "Guess that includes me, to be honest."

"I'm only sixteen anyway," Ichigo said. "I don't really need to be worrying about girls right now, anyway. I'll have plenty of time for that later."

Iba nodded as he did a quick count of the shinai that were in the racks. "Pretty mature attitude there, Kurosaki. Gotta give you credit, you've got your priorities straighter than a couple of people I know."

Satisfied with the shinai he held now, Ichigo put it back on the rack and stood up with a grunt. "Comes with the territory, being a big brother and all that." He looked around the currently empty room and stretched slightly. "It's gonna be time to get started soon, right?"

"Yeah, not much longer, I figure," Iba said. "Won't be many people to work with, we don't get a lot of fresh blood in this division. Most people are kinda spooked by the Captain before they get to know him."

Ichigo thought back to the polite greeting that he had gotten from Komamura when he'd arrived about ten minutes ago, and mentally conceded that point to Iba. The helmeted captain was definitely not the unfriendly or creepy sort, but with the echoes caused by his choice of headgear and generally towering stature, the first impression left most people leery.

Ichigo didn't know what to make of the Captain, himself. But at the very least, he figured, Komamura was an all right guy.

Silently, he reached for one of the shinai and gripped it tightly, smiling at the weight.

"Well, I guess for today they can be afraid of me instead. "

Iba let off a few rough barks of laughter. "Gonna give them some Eleventh-style training, huh? Do that and I might help you out myself. Been too long since I had a good scrap, especially with that moron Ikkaku."

Ichigo blinked in surprise. "You fight him too?"

"Every now and then, when the fancy strikes me." Iba's grin widened to become something that resembled Ikkaku's most predatory, bloodthirsty smile, the kind that Captain Zaraki would've been delighted to paste on his own face or see someone else run around with. "It's been a while, though."

"I just fought him the other day. Right now the record stands at 3 wins, 2 losses, and 2 draws. For me, of course."

"Better stay ahead of the curve, then," Iba said, laughing again. "Ikkaku drinks like a fish. And draws mean that you both owe each other a bottle, it's like a double loss so far as he's concerned."

"What, seriously? What kind of bullcrap rule is that!"

* * *

**Noon**

**Karakura Town, Mitsumiya: Below the Urahara Shop**

In the two weeks that had passed between the start of Orihime, Tatsuki, and Chad's training with Urahara, progress had been uphill at first, to say the least. With Urahara unable to modify the armbands without arousing potential suspicion further down the line, the process of boosting their Spiritual Energy in spite of the armbands' limitations was painstakingly slow.

As she leaned against a rock jutting up from the ground in Urahara's training room, taking a short break from her meditation, Tatsuki sighed, idly acknowledging the energies of Orihime, Chad, Urahara, and Ishida. Even with the armbands on, two weeks of solid meditation forced their powers and senses to grow, slowly enough that the armbands didn't adjust to excessive consumption patterns in order to keep their energy normal, but quickly enough to actually make progress in a reasonable time frame.

At first, getting into a pattern for the training had been a bit tricky. It was difficult to get into the proper state of mind at first, even with some prior experience from karate helping Tatsuki along, but once the three teenagers had discerned the proper technique for focusing their minds, the meditation had become practically effortless.

At this point, picking out Spiritual Energies was as easy as breathing for Orihime, Chad, and Tatsuki; walking to and from Urahara's, they could feel every single spirit, living or otherwise, around them. Oftentimes, it felt like standing on a stage with a spectrum of lights shining down on them, even when they learned how to block them out.

For the last two weeks, no one aside from Urahara and Yoruichi had seen hide or hair of Ishida at all, but could feel the swelling and falling of his Spiritual Energy whenever they came in and whenever they left; Urahara once vaguely implied that Ishida got there before they did and stayed long after they left, but would discuss no more than that.

When Tatsuki felt Ishida's usual surges finally stop, she stood up, rubbing her wild mane of black hair. She could sense his approach, and knew that the time had come at last.

She'd spent all morning with Chad and Orihime in a deeper form of their normal trance, trying to recreate that feeling that she'd had when she called on her powers while they did the same. They'd come close several times, but there was something holding them all back from that one moment; after about an hour of wasted attempts, Urahara made them get up and take a break.

Noon, however, was the agreed time to get together and try again. This time, she was going to do it. She refused to let anything else happen. She was ready, she knew she was ready, she was going to do it the same way that Orihime and Chad would. Nothing was going to stop her.

She stood, grateful that she'd worn light capris and a sky-blue shirt to ward off the heat, and walked back over to the flat plateau where the group had taken to practicing their meditations. As she jogged up the slight slope, Orihime, Urahara, and Chad came into her line of sight; once she stood level with them, a whooshing similar to a Flash Step sounded behind her, and Ishida appeared, his face cool and neutral as usual.

"And there's Tatsuki-san and Ishida-kun," Urahara said, smiling slightly as he fanned himself. "We're ready, then."

Orihime nervously smoothed down the bottom of her light-green dress, while Chad flexed his muscles slightly, causing his white, sleeveless shirt to stretch just a bit. Tatsuki looked at them both, and clenched a fist briefly before she sat down Indian-style, hands on her knees and breathing starting to slow. Orihime and Chad followed suit, while Ishida and Urahara continued to stand and observe.

Urahara looked briefly at Ishida and blinked. "Ah, so you've already figured it out, Ishida-kun. Would you terribly mind showing us your bow when you get the chance?"

"If you insist," Ishida said, his voice managing to convey the essence of a shrug.

Urahara simply nodded, and pointed his closed fan at Orihime, Chad, and Tatsuki. "Remember. You're reaching back into your memories. You're recalling that sensation right before your powers emerged. Focus on it and try to fill your mind with it."

The three teens nodded, then closed their eyes, backs straightening, and began to breathe, sinking into the meditative trance.

* * *

Chad was the first to find his footing, as it were. His breathing deepened as he recalled his burning desire to protect Ichigo's sister, to live up to his Abuelo's teachings, to destroy that Hollow, just as he had before. But right there, all of the willpower he had to break down the barrier seemed to stop, just as it had before. He knew he was doing it right, because something in his body was super-energized, but there was just something still blocking him.

_What is it?_ Chad asked himself. _What is it that I'm doing wrong?_

In annoyance, he cast his thoughts further, trying to remember what he felt right after he'd strock the Hollow down.

Then, as he recalled the pride that he'd felt upon protecting Karin and Kai, at living up to his grandfather's teachings, it hit him like a wave. Warmth blossomed through his chest, and then out of every pore of his body, shrouding him almost.

_**You are strong, Yasutora, **_his Abuelo said, and Chad felt the barest smile inch its way across his face as hit right arm _buzzed._

That was it. The key was...

* * *

Despite Chad's flaring Spiritual Energy, Orihime kept her composure, her eyes still closed and her mind still concentrating on her memories. Her relief at being able to heal and protect Tatsuki, her anger at the Hollow that attacked her classmates and friends, her determination to stand tall and unafraid, all flowed into her.

Instinctively, though, she knew that wasn't enough.

Over the last half a month, certain specialties that Ichigo's three friends had in the field of spiritual matters had become more and more prominent. They all had above-average Spiritual Energy, but Tatsuki's was the largest, if only slightly. Chad's ability to project Spiritual Pressure, on the other hand, was enormous, and his control of it was definitely ahead of Tatsuki's and mildly beating out Orihime's. And then, Orihime's overall ability to sense Spiritual Energies was closer to Ishida's or Ichigo's than anyone else.

So right now, Orihime could sense that Chad's Spiritual Energy was flowing freely, unburdened. She could sense that Tatsuki's was stubbornly, slowly, continuing to rise.

She could sense that hers had risen, and leveled off, refusing to go higher or lower.

Unconsciously, she chewed her bottom lip, balled her hands into fists. To say that she felt desperate might have been too much. It was more that she wanted to understand what it was that she wasn't doing properly.

Unconsciously, the image of her hairpins, one crossed over the other, floated into her mind. Despite the span of time that had passed, she could also see the Shun Shun Rikka as clear as day, standing there, smiling at her. (Well, with Tsubaki's red scarf, Ayame's sleeved hands covering her mouth, and Baigon's face-mask, it was difficult to say if they were smiling, Orihime thought. She wanted to think that they were, though, so she did.)

They all said nothing, but it was their very image that slowly pushed her forward. She wanted to see them again. She wanted to be strong enough to always have them at her side, to help her protect her friends.

Her eyes stayed closed, but her thoughts were focused and clear.

_Everyone, I won't stop. I'll stand right with you._

Teal light began to fill the farthest side of the darkness that was her eyelids. She knew it wasn't real, the light, but she knew that the rising tide of energy in her chest was all too real.

She smiled as the green-blue washed over her.

* * *

Tatsuki's thoughts had plunged her straight into darkness. Not even the darkness of regular eyes-closed-thought or meditation, but something deeper than that, almost physically palpable.

She could see nothing, could feel nothing of the wind on her skin, the sun overhead, the ground below her.

But she could hear something. A low growling, feral, bone-shaking. It rumbled in her ears, deafening and terrifying.

She tried to hold on to her memories, as she'd been instructed. She tried to hold onto the memory of the heat in her blood that spurred her on. That fierce pride when she'd punched the Hollow dead in its face and killed it.

And yet, the more she held onto those memories, the fiercer the growling grew, blocking out anything remotely close to rational thought.

Beneath the growling, though, she could hear something like a heartbeat. As she tried to regulate her breathing, the beat only grew thicker and thicker and thicker, the growling only grew louder and louder and louder.

And then, she gained her sight back and saw the fires from her dreams, dreams she'd had since the end of the Hunt. Without really having to look, she could see something with a thin, snakelike body moving amongst the flames.

"_Come out!"_ she yelled. _"What do you want, damn it? What did I do to get you chasing after me?"_

The growling tapered off suddenly, though the fires still raged. The thing that slunk and slithered out there amongst the flames slowly stopped its circling, and began to rise up from the darkness below the flames.

When it fully emerged, towering over her, Tatsuki felt a chill run down her spine as it lowered its massive head to her level.

Staring her in the face, with blue scales, burning red, slit-pupil eyes, a pair of thin whiskers sweeping backwards, and a set of horns that resembled thick, stout tree branches, was a dragon.

"No way," she whispered, and the dragon's body wrapped around her tightly, smothering her, as the fires blazed up and filled her mindscape.

* * *

In the real world, Urahara arched an eyebrow and let off a low whistle, while Ishida continued to watch his schoolmates nonchalantly.

Chad's right arm glowed briefly, and when the light faded from around his limb, it was once more covered in the black, red-striped armor; as he opened his eyes and got to his feet, he experimentally flexed his hand a few times before tightening it into a fist and humming.

Next, Orihime's hairpins began to glow, and then split apart into the Shun Shun Rikka, with much less dramatics and fanfare than before. By the time Orihime opened up her eyes and looked around, the Rikka were floating in front of her, as they had in her mind, and she couldn't help but smile at the sight.

Tatsuki, on the other hand, remained wholly motionless, her body stiffer than stones. Her Spiritual Energy was still climbing erratically, in comparison to Chad and Orihime's levels, though the overall progress it made was in short bursts.

Suddenly, it spiked up once more, then leveled off, at which point Tatsuki's fingers began to curl inward, leaving creases in her pants. Orihime quickly moved to put a hand on Tatsuki's shoulder, but recoiled instinctively when she felt a hazy heat working its way around Tatsuki's body. The black-haired girl let out a moan that gradually transitioned into a roar, and she leaned over, breathing so heavily that steam seemed to come out of her mouth in thin, wispy clouds.

Unsure of what to do, Orihime turned to Urahara, and the Shun Shun Rikka followed her gaze. "What's wrong with Tatsuki-chan, Urahara-san? Why is she reacting like this?"

"I don't know, Inoue-san," Urahara said, frowning slightly as he prepared to launch a Bakudou or two that would be more than enough to keep Tatsuki pinned down should things take a turn for the worse. "For now, let's wait and see."

At that moment, Tatsuki's right hand flew up from where it sat on her thigh and punched the ground, creating a small crater at the point of impact. Urahara, Orihime, Chad, and even Ishida instinctively moved backwards a bit, but whatever fears they might have had were allayed when Tatsuki looked up at them, her eyes purple and pupils slitted.

"Sorry about that," she whispered, panting slightly still; very slowly, the pattern of her scales gradually appeared on her fingers before working their way up her hands and to her elbows, like cracks growing in the ground. Once the patterns finished moving and setting themselves, the skin began to change color and texture, replacing her thin skin with the tough, leathery hide, while her fingernails lengthened, sharpened, and rounded into claws.

Orihime immediately flung herself at Tatsuki, hugging the girl so tightly that Tatsuki could feel her ribs groaning. "You did it, Tatsuki-chan! I was so worried, it looked like you were hurting so much!"

Tatsuki gently returned Orihime's hug, smiling softly. "It's OK. I wasn't expecting to meet a dragon skulking around in my head, so that's why I took so long. Otherwise I would have been done in an instant."

The comment made Orihime detach herself from Tatsuki almost immediately, though not because she was suddenly scared of Tatsuki but because the dark-haired girl had made the comment so casually despite the sweat gathered on her brow and the somewhat uneven level of her Spiritual Energy.

"A dragon, you say," Urahara said. "My, my, Arisawa-san. Your powers are well-suited to you indeed."

Grunting, Tatsuki stood up and shook her head. "We'll have to see about that, won't we." She then looked expectantly at Ishida, as did Orihime and Chad. "What about you, Ishida? Are you gonna show us what you've got?"

Ishida simply sighed and raised his right hand; the Quincy cross on his hand clinked and gleamed slightly in the artificial sunlight before his Spiritual Energy flared outwards, in one focused, controlled burst.

The first thing that everyone could see was how much more solid the bow appeared; its color was leaning closer to white than blue, and was much more opaque. It was also smaller than before, though only by a foot overall. More notably, Ishida seemed a bit tired after the bow solidified, though after a few breaths he seemed more comfortable, with only small bits of perspiration dotting his brow.

"It took some doing, but I was able to finally figure out how to adapt the Quincy techniques to my own Spiritual Energy," Ishida said. "As you can probably tell, I didn't draw Spiritual Particles to form this bow, and that's why it's smaller than my old one. My armband was structured more towards blocking my reception of Particles, so once I managed to get my own personal reserve of Energy in order, I was able to form it without passing out." He adjusted his glasses with his free hand., hiding his eyes behind their shine. "Given some time I believe I can make it superior to any internally-powered Reaper technique available."

"Yes, yes, Quincy superiority is wonderful," Urahara replied, fanning himself. "However, I believe that now is the time to focus on something more universal and generally more intriguing than the superiority of the Quincy. And that thing is called 'combat training'." He fished his free hand into his coat and withdrew a walkie-talkie, pressing down the call button. "Ururu, Kai, are you up there?"

"_Yes, sir, we're both here," _Ururu said. _"Do you need us down there now?"_

"Yes, it's time. Bring the padding along. Kai, be ready to fight, all right?"

"_You got it, old man!"_ Kai replied, grinning. _"About time, though! I haven't gotten to go all out in a while yet!"_

Urahara smiled to himself and let go of the call button, while Ichigo's friends stared at him in disbelief. Ishida recovered first, shaking his head. "You expect us to fight against your underage employees as part of this 'combat training' of yours? Urahara-san, I'm afraid you seem to have misplaced your common sense somewhere."

Urahara's smile grew wider, and despite the friendliness of the gesture, all four teenagers felt a chill race down their spines. "Oh, don't you worry about that. You'll see my plan soon enough."

Within the next two minutes, Ururu was walking over to the plateau that the group had been assembled on. She was wearing a pink, padded head protector that left the top of her head exposed, and a pair of matching padded gloves, somewhat similar to boxing gloves except that they only covered the top and back of her hand, leaving her palms exposed if her hands weren't clenched. Aside from that, she was wearing her pink-lettered Urahara Shop t-shirt, a polka-dotted skirt, and sandals. She carried two pairs of equipment that was similar to what she was wearing, one set in black, the other in red.

Trailing behind her was a tall, lean young man, appearing to be in his early twenties, with brown hair cut in Kai's preferred style and a thin, light ponytail that trailed down his back, tied off with a black rubber band. He was grinning lightly, and wore black sneakers, brown cargo shorts, and a camouflage-patterned sleeveless shirt. He carried another set of protective equipment, blue and white in color.

"Hey, Tatsu-nee, Hime-nee, Sado-nii, Ishida," the young man said. "Ready to go?"

The voice was deeper, more mature, but the smile, the nicknames, and the easy way that the newcomer carried himself told them all they needed to know about his identity.

"Kondou-kun?" Orihime asked, blinking and wide-eyed. "Is that you?"

"In the flesh," Kai said, smiling broadly. "Boss, I'm guessing you didn't bother explaining to them, didja?"

Urahara sighed. "I didn't, and I wasn't planning on doing so, though now that you've gone and said that I suppose I have to." He straightened up slightly, leaning less on his cane, and looked the assembled group of teenagers straight in the eyes.

"As Ishida-kun pointed out earlier, the combat training I plan on having you all go through is going to involve you fighting against Ururu and Kaitou. Ishida-kun also made the very valid point that such a fight is a very bad idea." He then turned to Ururu. "Ururu. Kindly demonstrate why this is not a bad idea."

The twin-tailed girl nodded once, put down the gear she was carrying, and trotted over to a nearby rock that was at least twice Chad's height and extremely wide. She lowered herself into a boxing stance, and then smashed her left fist into the rock. Spiderweb cracks began to form under her fist, and less than a moment later a two-foot crater erupted in the spot she'd punched.

"As you can see," Urahara continued, "Ururu is more than capable of handling herself in this situtation."

Tatsuki's eyes narrowed, while Orihime simply looked at the new damage to the rock. It was Ishida that spoke next. "But that explains nothing about why Kondou-kun's a grown man all of a sudden."

"This is my battle body," Kai replied as he picked up, then tossed, the blue pair of gloves and the headgear at Tatsuki. "See, unlike Ururu and Jinta I'm not...what you would call human." His face saddened somewhat, shrinking from its wide grin and into a sad smile. "A while back, the Soul Reapers started up a program to create artificial souls with special abilities. These Mod Souls were supposed to be an assist unit, striking preemptively against Hollows or working alongside the Reapers. At the time, the plan was to use Mod Souls by putting them into human corpses. That didn't work out too well, so they basically got rid of every Mod Soul made." He folded his arms, and his smile became bitter. "I got lucky."

"About forty or so years ago, I got a shipment of artificial souls with Kaitou mixed in amongst them," Urahara said, picking up the thread of conversation as he tapped his cane against the rocks. "While I was testing the souls out to make sure they functioned correctly, well, that was when Yoruichi and I met him for the first time."

* * *

_Kisuke Urahara was not a man that was easy to catch off guard. He'd been alive for longer than any being in the human world could boast, and as such had years of experience with awkward situations that spanned back for years and years._

_And yet he had almost no idea what to do as the young Gigai, which he'd been using to test out the batch of Artificial Souls he'd just gotten from a contact in Soul Society, sprang to his right, rushing straight at Yoruichi with a lecherous grin on its face that was entirely inappropriate._

"_I'm finally free!" the Soul said, its boyish voice clearly delighted. "And what's this! A beautiful lady to greet me~!"_

_Yoruichi, while never one to shy away from a nice hug, was quite sure that she wasn't going to be hugged, if the familiar light of lechery in this Mod Soul's eyes were any indication of his intentions. _

"_Hands off!"_

* * *

"It was...interesting, to say the least," Urahara said, smiling and stifling a bout of private laughter while Kai grimaced and rubbed at his right cheek in annoyance (out of practice or not, Yoruichi hit like a man three times her size). "At any rate, once we were able to identify Kaitou as a Mod Soul, and saw his special ability, we decided to take him on board at the shop."

"And what about Ururu? And Jinta?" Tatsuki asked, snorting in annoyance—and accidentally letting out what appeared to be a puff of steam, though she didn't notice. "What's their story?"

Urahara shook his head. "I've explained enough, so that's going to have to wait for another time." The shopkeeper motioned to the gear that Ururu had put down, while Kai dropped the other set of gear. "Everyone, put those on. Ishida-kun, you and Kai will be working together however it is you see fit. Everyone else will be with Ururu. Be serious or you'll regret it."

Orihime simply looked down at the white gloves and headgear, biting her lip slightly. Shun'ou and the rest of the Rikka, who had until now been watching the group and listening to the conversations, turned their attention directly on her, and Shun'ou smiled.

"Don't worry, Orihime," he said, floating closer to his mistress. "We're here to protect you. You'll be fine."

Orihime bit her lip, but after a while, she managed to return the smile and nod before she picked up the white forehead protector and began to put it on.

While she did that, Tatsuki turned to Kai, frowning slightly as she realized she now had to look up at him. "So, Mr. Mod Soul. What can you do?"

Kai put his hands in his pockets and grinned. "You'll see soon enough. But if you would like a demonstration, I'd be happy to give it." He sauntered over to the rock that Ururu had just punched and examined it, tapping it in a few spots and nodding to himself.

Then, he kicked it, aiming high and to the side, just above where it had been hit before.

It was quiet for a while after the loud _THWAK _of Kai's shoe hitting the rock faded from the air, and Kai simply stood, unmoving, with his foot in the same spot. Right when Tatsuki was about to scoff at him for showing off and failing, the area of rock beneath his feet opened on the spot.

Precisely half a second later, the entire top half of the stone exploded into a shower of brown pebbles and dust.

Everyone present except for Urahara and Ururu blinked, coughed, and hacked as the cloud of debris swept over them. When it cleared, Kai slowly lowered his leg, still grinning stupidly.

"Probably should've just hit it where Ururu did. Would've caused less mess. Sorry about that."

From where he floated next to Shun'ou and Orihime, Tsubaki shook his head, his narrowed eyes slightly widened from the persisting shock and his tanned skin several shades paler. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

* * *

**Friday, August 13, Noon**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Fifth Division Barracks**

"Ye lord. Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man."

The red sphere in Ichigo's right hand pulsed, and he swore angrily and redoubled his efforts to control his growing energy. From a distance, Hinamori, Aizen, and Rukia all watched him quietly, saying nothing so that he could keep his concentration.

The four were gathered outside of the Fifth Division, on the practice field behind the division, but in order to prevent gawking, Aizen had given standing orders to all his subordinates to either do work in the barracks or go train somewhere else. The sternness in his voice ensured that the order was followed, and so all Ichigo had to struggle against was his own lack of control over the spell, not gawking bystanders.

"Inferno and pandemonium...the sea barrier surges...!"

Another pulse of energy shook his hand once more, and he gripped his right wrist with his left hand.

"March on to the south!"

The sphere doubled in size and intensity of light; Ichigo quickly let go of his supporting hand and pointed his right, palm-first, at the training dummy positioned at the opposite side of the field.

"Hadou number 31, Red Flame Cannon!"

The sphere expanded into a flowing column of energy, and the grass rippled as the spell passed overhead and slammed into the dummy with extreme force. Despite the power Ichigo had packed into the spell, he couldn't sustain it for more than a few moments before it gave out, and he fell to one knee, panting heavily not from the loss of energy but from the extreme focus he had to put into compressing the sphere.

On the other side of the field, the grass around the dummy was slightly scorched from the heat the spell gave off, though the dummy itself, having been built to stand up to such things, was barely singed. As Ichigo examined his handiwork, he felt a grin work its way across his face.

"Finally got it," he whispered to himself. "Finally, finally, finally. I finally got it!"

"Indeed, you did. Not bad at all."

The praise came from a male voice, which wasn't Aizen's, and from behind Ichigo. The Deputy Reaper briefly looked to his right, towards Aizen, Hinamori, and Rukia; their approving smiles had been tucked away behind rather neutral masks. He then stood up and turned to the newcomer.

Gin Ichimaru, wearing his usual fox-faced grin, raised a hand in greeting to Ichigo and the others, his stance somewhat slouched. Despite Ichimaru's friendly expression and posture, Ichigo could swear that the Captain's Spiritual Energy, even as tightly suppressed as it was, was reaching out to him, giving him the feeling of being surrounded by something cold and slimy.

"Now, now, what's with that look, kiddo? I don't recall doing anything to earn that kind of stare."

Ichigo fought back the grimace trying to cross his face and bowed at Ichimaru. "My apologies, sir."

Ichimaru's grin grew wider for a second, but then he shrunk it a bit. "It's all right. Probably got a bit lost in thought, I'm guessing. That spell must've taken a lot of your concentration."

"It wasn't as bad as it's been before," Ichigo said. "Lieutenant Hinamori and Lieutenant Ise have been really pushing me these last two weeks. It used to be so bad that I couldn't get it that far even with the incantation."

Ichimaru put a hand to his chin and nodded a few times. "And in two weeks, you've come that far? Most definitely impressive."

"May I ask why you're here, Captain Ichimaru?" Aizen asked at last, his voice carefully modulated to a neutral tone. "You're interrupting Kurosaki-kun's training."

"Oh, just stopping by to say hello, that's all," Ichimaru replied. "Just wanted to see a little more of the Karakura Strawberry's talents. The rumors often tend to be...exaggerated a little bit. Best to judge this kind of thing with one's own eyes."

Ichigo flinched and clenched his teeth, keeping his lips pressed together. "Karakura Strawberry" was the name of the calendar and photo book set that the Women's Association had put out for Ichigo, and its popularity was so well known around the Seireitei that the name of the collection was all but forced upon Ichigo as a nickname. However, as Ichigo had made plainly clear by use of Mr. Left Hook and Mrs. Right Straight, no one was to actually call him by that name, much less to his face, if they wanted to keep enjoying a pain-free life.

Of course, Ichimaru being a Captain meant that Ichigo's usual method of dealing with the issue was not on the table. Not unless he wanted to invite a lot of pain and suffering and a trip to the Fourth.

"I didn't mean to interrupt anything," the Third Division Captain continued, "so I'll just head out now. Take care, Ichigo-kun. I'll be seeing you around." He turned and headed back towards the main barracks, whistling tunelessly as he shuffled through the grass.

It wasn't until Ichimaru's Spiritual Energy disappeared entirely that Ichigo let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding; to his surprise, he heard Rukia do the same, and looked over to her.

"You felt it too," he said.

Rukia simply shook her head, almost robotically, as she looked to the ground. "...shamefully, I must admit that I dislike being around Captain Ichimaru. For some reason, whenever I speak to him, or am near him...it's like being crushed by some kind of snake."

"I've felt the same way," Hinamori added quietly. "There's just something so off-putting about that man. I can't understand it myself."

"He's unpleasant because he hides something," Aizen said, adjusting his glasses and staring at the doors that Ichimaru had slid, and left, open, which led back into the Fifth's main compound. "A good many things, I would like to say. But as to what he hides, and why he hides them...I don't know." After a moment, the Fifth's Captain cleared his throat and clapped his hands. "Hinamori-kun. I think it's time we got back on track. Perhaps you can explain to Kurosaki-kun how he can control his Red Flame Cannon a little bit better."

Hinamori seemed to rouse herself at those words, and finally managed to smile again. "Y-yes, Captain."

With that, she walked over to Ichigo and faced the dummy.

"You did well, Kurosaki-kun, but you have to remember to add Spiritual Pressure at very specific intervals, and not so irregularly..."

* * *

**10:02 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Fifth Division Barracks**

Several hours later, Hinamori was preparing herself for bed. After a long day of training Ichigo and managing some Division work, she'd all but worn herself out, and was looking forward to some rest in preparation for her early morning tomorrow.

As she left the bathroom, dressed in her slippers and a modest white kimono, she stopped in front of Captain Aizen's open door to peek in on him and say goodnight.

To her surprise, when she leaned in to see what he was doing, she saw no one there. Frowning in confusion, she closed her eyes and let her senses spread out over the barracks, trying to pin down where her captain had gone off to. He wasn't in the habit of taking late-night walks without letting anyone know where he was going, so he had to be nearby.

After a moment, she found Aizen's signature right out at the front gates of the Division, and smiled to herself, turning down the hall to make her way out there.

She stopped cold, though, when she realized that another, uncomfortably familiar spiritual presence—_snakelike_ was the only word she had for it—was near Aizen's, and the way it was growing meant only one thing as far as Hinamori was concerned.

She ran to her room and grabbed her zanpakutou before taking long, frantic strides down the hall, headed directly for the exit to the barracks' center field. Once outside, she broke into a run, swallowing her panic and horror as the snakelike spiritual energy grew and grew.

As she drew closer to the gate, she could see Captain Aizen standing dead in front of it, his white captain's jacket shining in the moonlight. His Spiritual Pressure had been deployed and was growing second by second.

So, too, was the snakelike one—the one that belonged to none other than Captain Ichimaru.

When Hinamori got less than a foot away from Aizen, he yelled, without turning to face her, "Stay back, Hinamori! Don't get involved!"

Ignoring him, Hinamori practically leaped to stand next to him, drawing her zanpakutou in midair and landing next to her Captain with a cold frown on her face. In front of them, Ichimaru, still smiling, raised an eyebrow.

"And yet another mark against your skill as a Captain, Aizen," Ichimaru said. "Your subordinates seem to have issues listening to their superiors."

"Hinamori, stay back," Aizen said once more, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses as he spread his legs apart slightly. "This is between me and him."

"Captain, you can't fight him alone," Hinamori replied, gathering herself for a spell. "What's going on? Please, tell me!"

Ichimaru shook his head. "Just cleaning up a loose end, is all, Hinamori-kun. Suffice it to say that your captain is rather nosy, and went digging into things that he had no business seeking out." His grin widened, showing teeth and canines this time. "I'd hoped that stopping by today had given my little warning loud and clear, but I might have underestimated your determination. Or overestimated your intelligence."

Aizen bent down a little bit more, and tilted the hilt of his zanpakutou downward. "And I think you've underestimated my strength. Or overestimated yours." In an instant, he rushed forward, his zanpakutou clearing its sheath and swinging out at Ichimaru's side. In another, Ichimaru's shorter zanpakutou, styled like a_wakizashi, _was free of its sheath as well, and Ichimaru himself was sidestepping.

"Shoot to kill, Shinsou," Ichimaru whispered, thrusting his sword straight in Hinamori's direction, and in a flash of white light, Shinsou expanded forward, pushing through the air with extreme speed.

Unfortunately for Hinamori, being so close to Ichimaru meant that even with her well-honed senses, she wasn't fast enough to react to Shinsou's attack, though out of sheer reflex and fear for her life, she began to raise her zanpakutou to block it.

"Hinamori!" Aizen roared, eyes widening as he spun around and gathered his Spiritual Pressure up. "Damn it! Ichimaru, you bastard!"

Right as Shinsou's blade was about to pierce Hinamori, Aizen disappeared in a blur of motion, which Hinamori barely registered.

It wasn't until Aizen's body appeared right in front of her and she heard the sickening sound of a blade piercing flesh that she understood what her captain had just done.

More importantly, what he'd just done for her.

With a gasp of pain, Aizen hacked up a bit of blood, spattering the dirt in front of him, as Shinsou's blade sunk into his lung. His right hand let go of his zanpakutou, while his left was planted firmly on Hinamori's shoulder, having pushed her further behind him as he came out of the Flash Step.

Ichimaru continued to smile, shaking his head and sighing a bit. "Good save, Captain. But you're too naïve."

Aizen coughed again, and then Ichimaru pushed Shinsou a little bit more. At the silent gesture, the blade burst right out of Aizen's lower back and through Hinamori's stomach.

"Stopping Shinsou with your weak body is outright impossible."

With that, he twisted Shinsou so that the edge faced outward, and _pulled._ The still-extended sword tore out of its victims' bodies with some resistance, and Hinamori vomited a mix of bile and blood before collapsing in the messy puddle she'd just created on the ground.

Aizen managed to stop himself from falling over, stopping on one knee. But with one hand pressed to his side, and his limbs becoming heavier by the second, there was nothing that he could do.

"Hinamori...!" He coughed again, and his vision swum as he heard Ichimaru's steps draw closer. "Hinamori...!"

Hinamori's vision had long since gone dark, and her hearing was fading just as rapidly. Still, she was able to hear her captain's last, choked calls to her, as well as Ichimaru's final words.

"Goodbye, Captain Aizen. Shoot him dead, Shinsou."

With a shaking hand, Hinamori groped blindly in Aizen's direction, only for her hand to drop into the blood pooling under her unconscious body as the whoosh of Shinsou's expansion and the gushing sound of its fatal attack cut through the air.

* * *

It took another ten minutes for one of the Fifth's Reapers, Tenzou Nakagawa, to come across the scene at the Fifth Division gates. He had been out at the Ya Sakazuki on a date, and after walking the lucky lady home, he'd headed straight for the barracks, whistling a jaunty tune as his loose blue ponytail streamed out behind him.

By the time he got there, the scene was more than capable of speaking for itself, to some extent. Hinamori's body, rapidly cooling but still keeping a pulse, however faint, was pressed into the ground. Just in front of her lay Captain Aizen's jacket, stained with blood and dirt, and his glasses, split at the bridge with bloodied lenses.

Any proof of their assailant's identity was long since gone.

Nakagawa, blue with shock, didn't know what to make of what he was seeing, but the moment he saw Hinamori's body quiver slightly, he picked her up and broke into Flash Steps, flying eastward, directly across Seireitei and to the Fourth Division, with all due haste.

Even if he didn't know what had just gone on, he knew that Hinamori did, and that only he could get her to safety in time so that she could tell them who had killed their captain.

As he raced away, carrying a comatose Hinamori, the moonlight caught the remnants of Aizen's glasses and his jacket, causing a slight shine on the parts of the lenses that were still clean of blood.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Writers' block is really a pain in the neck. And is probably the reason why this chapter is so much longer, because I wanted it to end with Ichigo's friends getting their time AND this latest unpleasant development in Soul Society._

_I'm really hoping that the end of this chapter didn't come out of left field, but I keep getting the feeling that while I did foreshadow something happening between Aizen and Ichimaru at some point with a scene in Chapter 19, I didn't foreshadow enough to make it believable. Sometimes, writing is tricky that way. _

_I want to thank **Caellach Tiger Eye** for catching the calendar mistakes I made and mentioned up at the top there. To summarize, my first mistake was shifting days between Chapters 18 and 19, in which Friday the twenty-third was followed by Sunday the mistake and any other references in the text have been fixed accordingly, placing the twenty-fourth on a Saturday as it should be. Also, way back in chapters 7 and 8, I started with June seventeenth being a Thursday in Ch. 7 and ended with it being a Wednesday in Chapter 8. However, it seems that through some sort of freak math accident I have yet to understand, Chapter 7 is the chapter that is incorrect, as the calendar dates fit perfectly fine when the chapters were corrected to happen on Tuesday and Wednesday, not Wednesday and Thursday—in other words, when the chapters follow Chapter 8's dating, where Wednesday is the seventeenth._

_After repeated checks, so far I don't see any more errors in the timeline, so from here on out, no more corrections should be necessary unless I mistype something. _

_Also, it seems that in my infinite wisdom in translating spell names, I forgot that the dub called Hado 31 Red Flame Cannon, not Red Fire Cannon as I'd just retroactively corrected my chapters to say. That said, that discrepancy will be fixed as soon as possible._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_wakizashi—a short sword, similar in overall shape to a miniature katana, often part of a daishou (big-small) sword pair used by samurai._

_Student Review Corner:_

_Cheek (Chapter 13): I took some time to think over your reviews after reading them, and I will admit that the one thing I didn't really take into account, probably because of how excited I was to write the chapters, was that Ichigo's energy being more under control should have at least slowed down the development of his friends' powers. I did use the justification that sheer negligence was for the most part responsible for the fact that Ichigo's friends got their powers precisely on time, as Ichigo's armband was not fully adjusted until after the Hollow hunt to better restrain his powers. However, I can see and understand why you would call that a weakness in the plot. I apologize for letting my heart get ahead of my head, and I'll do my best to avoid such a mistake in the future._

_As for Kai being a random OC, well...that assumption's not correct. Hints towards the reveal of Kai's identity were present long before I all but said it in this chapter, and at least one reviewer actively figured out who Kai was. I will admit that Kai's behavior in comparison to his canon equivalent is incredibly different, but that's because he's been awake and active for much longer in this story, and has had some of his less mature traits worked out of him rather thoroughly, as Yoruichi can attest to. If I could, I would go into more detail about just how those traits were worked out, but that's a good story in and of itself._

_LunaBianca (Chapter 18):_ _Ichigo's style of blending his body, kidou, and sword skills is something that will become more prominent as more fighting scenes come into play. The emphasis here will be on using everything he's got to his advantage instead of relying on Zangetsu exclusively. Mostly because I find that kind of thing interesting, mostly because I see no reason why he shouldn't put his ass-beatings from Soifon to good use, and mostly because I would like a mark of distinction from canon Ichigo._

_Next chapter might be a bit short in contrast to how much longer this one was, but the two-plot thing is still going to keep running, it's really helping structure my thoughts. Should circumstances continue to get in my way, though, I may not get Chapter 21 done precisely on time, but I'll try._

_So far, we're looking to be on schedule so far as the finish is concerned. My initial December-January estimate of the story ending might have been a bit much, as it's looking like most of the relevant points can possibly be wrapped up within the next three chapters. However, I may wind up extending things with a few minor Hollow scenes here and there, just to give all of you a taste of Orihime, Chad, and Tatsuki kicking some butt. I keep feeling like they've sort of gotten the middle road in terms of spotlight time—enough to show that they're still there and important, but not enough to show what they're going to be capable of with some good old-fashioned hard work._

_All right. That's all I've got. Hopefully I'll see you sometime before the 31st with Chapter 21._

_Till next class._

_~ZS_


	21. Lesson 21: Grief Management 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 21: Grief Management 101, or Pushing Past Pain_

* * *

**Saturday, August 14, 7 AM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase: Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

With the first light of the sun shining over Karakura Town, it wouldn't be long before some people began to wake up so that they could get their Saturday started in full swing. For others, however, Saturday was a day of rest, a time to recuperate and recharge for the week that would start in two days.

Ichigo Kurosaki, despite fitting into the former category, had the sleeping habits of the latter category, and was completely submersed in a dreamless sleep that could only be interrupted by a surprise attack from one Isshin Kurosaki or the buzzing of his Soul Phone, both of which had become conditioned alarms for him to jump to action.

It was the latter which roused him, much more quickly due to the fact that the vibrations were much more intense than usual. With a half-awake groan, he sat up and flung his hand out to land on top of the phone, and then picked it up, absentmindedly switching over to the message screen. Once he could see the message, he began to read it listlessly, slowly scrolling his eyes from line to line.

_Cpt. Aizen is missing, presumed deceased. Lt. Hinamori injured, in recovery. Seireitei is on high alert while Cpt. Soifon & Disciplinary Cps. investigate. Do patrol on your own this morning and this evening. Will come by to see you when lock-down is over._

_Rukia_

When he finished reading, Ichigo blinked once or twice, chasing away the last vestiges of sleep from his mind.

That was when the import of what he just read hit him, and he sharply looked back down at the screen, unable to process anything but one set of words.

_Cpt. Aizen is missing, presumed deceased. Lt. Hinamori injured. Cpt. Aizen...missing...presumed deceased. Hinamori...injured._

"What the hell...?" Ichigo whispered, eyes wide and fists clenching. "Captain Aizen...murdered? No. No way. This is...this is some sort of sick joke!"

He stared at the phone for a while longer, and then stood up. He strode over to his desk, opened up the "Reaper crap" drawer, and pulled out Alfred's pill. Moments later, Ichigo was out of his half-dressed body, staring Alfred straight in the face.

"I'm going out on patrol early today, Alfred," Ichigo said, fighting to keep the rage he felt bubbling up under control as he stuffed his Soul Phone into his robes' inner pocket. "Try to fake being asleep for another hour or two, and deal with the old man as usual. Karin will be able to tell that we've switched, but don't worry. She understands what's going on."

"Yes, sir!" Alfred said, saluting sharply. "You can count on me!"

Ichigo nodded curtly before phasing through his window and running off to the east, traveling through the air as opposed to roof-hopping. Alfred watched him go for a while before turning around and tucking himself into bed, diligently counting every second between now and the end of the hour.

Ichigo's thoughts as he raced across Minamikawase were nowhere near as organized. The one thing he could feel right now aside from a tiny nugget of grief was a ferocious hatred. Hatred for whoever had injured Hinamori. Hatred for whoever might have killed Aizen. Hatred at the fact that if the assailant was strong enough to do both things, he couldn't do anything to avenge the captain or the lieutenant.

However, his enraged thoughts were interrupted by three familiar energies headed towards the northeast from his current position, moving well ahead of him. Puzzled by how familiar they felt, but not sure where he'd felt them before, Ichigo stopped and stood in midair, getting a fix on the signatures.

It took him a few seconds to register the three energies as belonging to Orihime, Chad, and Tatsuki. Scowling, he looked around to get a fix on where exactly he was, as he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going.

_Yeah, this is right between Sakurabashi and Minamikawase,_ he thought. _Close enough for them to have met up with each other before heading out. But where are they all going at this time of day, together?_

Remembering how Tatsuki had told him that she, Chad, and Orihime could sense spiritual energies, if only barely, Ichigo suppressed his own signature and began to follow them. He knew that he had to patrol, and definitely planned on doing so, but he had to know just what it was that would cause all three of them to travel together when by her own admission Tatsuki had said that she didn't hang out with Chad that much, if at all.

* * *

**7:25 AM**

**Karakura Town, Mitsumiya: Urahara Shop**

Within the half-hour, Orihime, Tatsuki, and Chad, dressed in standard summer clothing and with Ichigo still on their tracks, had all arrived at the Urahara Shop. As they crossed the street and entered the lot in front of the shop, Ichigo, traveling above and behind them, began to descend to street level. Though his face was set in his normal scowl, he was actively fighting to keep it there, as he was more than ready to get extremely upset.

_I told them to stay away from Urahara. I told them to just stay out of trouble and keep their heads down. And this is the first thing they do. Goddamn it, don't they get it?_

When the soles of Ichigo's sandals rasped against the concrete, his friends flinched and turned around to see what caused the noise, only to go pale as they saw Ichigo, arms folded and scowl getting downright nasty, begin to walk closer.

"Going to go train with the guys to get ready for the season, right, Tatsuki?" Ichigo asked, somehow managing to keep his voice from breaking into an out-and-out yell. "And I'm guessing that this is one of those rare times where you meet up with Chad, right?"

"Ichigo, I can explain," Tatsuki said slowly.

Were there a wall nearby, Ichigo would have punched it. "What is there to explain! I told you guys to just stay cool and accept what was happening. Instead, I find you all going to go see Urahara _behind my back!_ What the hell are you doing? Do you want Soul Society to have your heads on a platter? They only agreed to leave you alone because they didn't think you were gonna pull something stupid like this!"

"Kurosaki-kun, please. Just hear us out," Orihime said, stepping closer to him. A slight wind picked up and blew her hair back a bit, and she absently brushed a strand of hair out of her face before she continued talking. "We had to do this."

Ichigo took three steps forward and swung his hand down. "Bullshit! You didn't have to do anything except listen to me when I told you to stay out of it!"

Before Ichigo could get any more upset, Chad approached and put a hand on Ichigo's shoulder. Ichigo was about to snarl and throw the larger boy's hand off, but Chad was firm and unwavering.

"Ichigo. We know you can protect us. We know you can protect Karakura. But can you protect all of us and all of Karakura at the same time? Could you forgive yourself if we got hurt because you couldn't protect all of us and all of Karakura at the same time?"

Ichigo opened his mouth to respond, but Chad immediately continued talking, cutting off his reply. "You can say that you can protect everything if you want, but you know that you can't be everywhere at once. And that's why we had to do this. We have to protect ourselves, so that you can do your job. We have to protect ourselves, so we can help you protect this place." The Mexican boy's single visible eye gained a hard light. "We have a right to make our own choices. This is the choice we made."

For a moment, Ichigo looked slightly guilty, but soon enough he got a handle on his emotions and shook his head, shrugging off Chad's hand. "Whether I would or wouldn't accept being powerless has nothing to do with this conversation. This is about your decision to ignore me when I told you to just stay normal!"

Tatsuki crossed her arms and frowned. "News-flash, Ichigo. We're not normal anymore. We can't be normal, either. Even with those armbands on, we could still see ghosts. Even if we didn't get any stronger, they wouldn't have gone away. Hollows would still be after us. Nothing would have changed."

"I know that!" Ichigo yelled, throwing his arms up into the air. "But that doesn't give you the right to just go off and decide to do stupid things like this just because you want to! Now things are more difficult for all of us. I have to lie to my superiors about what's going on and hope to God they don't decide to investigate further, or we're all screwed." He began to pace back and forth, his eyebrows growing tighter with each passing second. "And you guys, you have to stop coming here. If Rukia ever catches wind of this, I'm positive she'll rat you out before I can convince her not to. She's nowhere near as lenient about this kind of thing as I am."

"Kurosaki-kun, we can't stop now," Orihime whispered, her boldness replaced with her normal nervousness around Ichigo, and amplified to the maximum by his anger. "None of us can go back to the way things were, including you. None of us can go back to being normal, so we have to make the best out of what we have now."

Ichigo stopped pacing and glared at all of them. "Except I didn't have a choice but to stop being normal. If I hadn't become a Soul Reaper my entire family would have died. You all didn't have to do this! You could have gone right back to your normal lives and lived just fine!"

Tatsuki finally let the control she had on her temper fade, and she grabbed Ichigo's robes and pulled him close to her and down a bit so that they were practically face-to-face. "Did you not listen to me?" she yelled. "I'm telling you that it was too late to be normal a long time ago! It was too late the moment we could see those goddamn Hollows, there was no turning back after that!" Her eyes began to change to the burning purplish color of her empowered state. "We made the only decision we could make, Ichigo. If you really and truly think that any of us were going to sit back and pretend that there was nothing going on, you're a hell of a lot more stupid than I thought."

With Tatsuki in his face, Ichigo was hard-pressed to come up with a sharp comeback, and so chose to stare down at her, his mouth set in a hard line. Eventually, she let go and pushed him away, growling angrily to herself for a moment before taking a breath and facing him with a much more controlled expression. Chad simply watched the exchange in silence, while Orihime shrank back a bit and looked between Ichigo and Tatsuki with concern. She wanted to say something, but she didn't know what she could say to mend the growing rift between her best friend and her longtime crush.

After about half a minute of tense, bitter silence, Ichigo spoke at last. "I guess that's true."

Tatsuki fixed him with a stare that would burn water. "What's true?"

"I am kind of stupid, aren't I. Thinking that you guys would just be able to turn your backs on this when I didn't do it." His voice was soft at first but as he continued to speak, it grew firm once more, becoming bitter and upset again. "Well, you know what? If this is what you want, then fine. Since I was wasting my time trying to help you guys live normally, I'll just worry about doing my job."

Orihime visibly wilted. Chad frowned, not liking how Ichigo had thrown Chad's words from earlier back at them, and Tatsuki looked chagrined for a moment, realizing that maybe she'd been too harsh with him.

"The best I can do for you if you guys get found out is say that I didn't know about it and that I don't think you should be punished. If you get in trouble anyway, then...that's your problem."

Even as he spoke, Ichigo felt his chest ache, and his fists clench. He wasn't quite as angry as he had been a few moments ago, but he still felt hurt that they had gone behind his back after all that had gone on, and though he might not have shown it, he did understand why they did.

_It's just like it was with me. They wanted to protect themselves so that I wouldn't have to. They were thinking about what they wanted to keep safe, the same way I did. They made the same decision that I did. All they wanted to do was help. But they've made such a mess out of things. What am I going to do if the Gotei comes after them?_

The problem wasn't that he didn't care about his friends, or didn't want to protect his friends, but that he didn't want to have to fight the Gotei to protect his friends. He had worked hard to gain the trust of the Soul Reapers, and Rukia had saved his life, saved his family. He didn't want to violate that trust, or break his word to pay back Rukia's favor to him, but he couldn't abandon Tatsuki, Orihime, and Chad.

_Duty is heavier than a mountain._

With a quiet, annoyed grunt, directed at either himself or at his situation, Ichigo sighed and gathered Spiritual Particles under his feet. "I've got to go. I'll see you all around."

He took a leap and landed on the solid air, then set out to the east, continuing to comb Mitsumiya with his Soul Phone at the ready. His friends watched him go, their expressions somber.

"He's really torn up about this," Orihime said, trying not to bite her lip as her crush became a black spot on the horizon.

Tatsuki nodded, pressing her lips together. "Yeah. But he's in no mood to talk about it. I know Ichigo, though. He'll be fine."

Orihime's brown eyes fixed Tatsuki with a guilty look, and after a while, Tatsuki groaned and began to scratch her hair, mussing it up even more. "It's just like I told Ichigo, even with the armbands on we could still see ghosts. We'd be walking, talking Hollow bait whichever way you looked at it. At least this way we can fight back if we have to."

"But is it worth Kurosaki-kun's friendship?" Orihime asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Tatsuki brushed a piece of lint off of her sky-blue shirt and shook her head. "Even if he doesn't agree with what we did, he understands, I know he does. Once he calms down a bit, he'll be fine, just like I said." She turned towards the shop and began to walk. "Now come on. We're wasting time."

Both Chad and Orihime cast one last glance at where Ichigo had disappeared, but eventually followed Tatsuki inside.

* * *

**11 AM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Fourth Division Barracks, Medical Ward**

Lieutenant Isane Kotetsu sighed with a mix of exhaustion and relief coloring her breath as she entered the room where Hinamori had been sleeping for the better half of 12 hours. The Fifth Division's Lieutenant had been in critical condition when she'd been brought to the ward, and it had taken every bit of skill that Isane had to stabilize her; Captain Unohana had been supervising, and did assist quite a bit when necessary, but was intent on trying to get Isane to utilize her not-meager medical skill.

Hinamori's room was, like all of the medical wards, decorated with simplicity in mind. The bed had white sheets and two fluffy white pillows, and was set up so that the foot pointed at the wall with the doorway; half-open windows were placed on both sides of the bed, letting in quite a bit of light and warmth.. As Isane approached the bed, she adjusted the bag that she was carrying in the crook of her arm, which had a number of medicines and a few fresh rolls of bandages to apply if necessary. Hinamori's wound hadn't needed any surgery to fix, thankfully, but the Kidou used to seal the wounds needed time to stick, and the pressure from the bandages would help that happen.

It wasn't until Isane put the bag onto the foot of the bed that she heard the rustling of the sheets, and she looked over to the head of the bed to see Hinamori slowly, carefully sitting up. The smaller girl, despite all the sleep she'd had, looked as if she'd tossed and turned all night; her eyelids were puffy and baggy, and her eyes themselves were somewhat red, while her skin was pale and clammy. A few strands of her undone hair were clinging to her forehead.

"Kotetsu-san," she said, her voice hoarse and croaking. "How did I...?"

"One of the men from your division found you outside," Isane replied, bending down a bit more so that Hinamori didn't have to look up at her face, and taking a moment to brush aside the thin, light-purple braids on the right side of her head. "He brought you here as quickly as he could."

Hinamori's response to that was a semi-blank stare, and for a moment the sheer emptiness in Hinamori's eyes made Isane internally flinch. To see any person with that kind of despairing expression was difficult, but with Hinamori it was like staring into an abyss of utter depression.

"What happened to Captain Aizen?"

Despite herself, Isane couldn't help but look away.

Hinamori's hands, already resting limply on her lap, seized suddenly, straightening out the wrinkles at the bottom of the sheet and concentrating them between her two fists.

"No."

Isane wanted to tell Hinamori that the body hadn't been found, that there was a chance, however slim, that Aizen might still be alive, but she couldn't bring herself to speak. She knew how dangerous it was to give people false hope, and had a gut feeling from Hinamori's reaction that whatever the Fifth's Lieutenant had seen would likely keep her from believing any words about her Captain's potential survival.

"Hinamori-san, I need to change your bandages," Isane said instead, zipping the bag open and reaching into it to pull out the roll of fabric. "After that, I have some medicines that I want you to take when your meal gets here."

"Tell me what happened to Captain Aizen, please," Hinamori asked. The way she said it, despite the ragged edge to her voice, implied that it was not a request.

Isane turned her attention to the bag, partially to look for the medicines she needed to leave for Hinamori and partially to hide her sad frown from her fellow Lieutenant. "I'm not at liberty to discuss that, Hinamori-san. I'm sorry."

The cracking of Hinamori's knuckles might have been mistaken for firecrackers had they been any louder. "_Tell me_."

"Hinamori-san, please, calm down," said another voice, and Isane sighed in relief as Unohana came gliding into the room, smiling placidly as usual and bringing her aura of motherliness with her. She carried a tray in one hand, with a cup of warm tea and a bowl full of thick, hearty soup. Hinamori briefly flicked her haunted eyes up to the Captain of the Fourth before slowly loosening her fists and doing as she'd been asked, causing Unohana's smile to widen slightly.

"Much better." Unohana then turned her attention to Isane. "Isane, I'll take care of Hinamori-san from here. Could you kindly go and do your normal rounds for now? We've got a few people waiting for you. When I leave for the meeting, I'll need you to come back here."

"Of course," Isane replied, standing up a bit more quickly than she would have liked as she bowed at her shorter superior, then Hinamori. "If you'll excuse me."

With that, she all but rushed out of the room with long strides, taking only the barest of moments to duck her head so that she didn't hit the top of the door on her way out. Once Isane was gone, Unohana went over to the bed and set the tray down next to the medical bag, and finished unpacking all of the medicines before closing the bag and putting it on the floor. She then picked up the tray with the soup and the tea and pulled at the two legs attached to the underside, turning it into a miniature table that she then set above Hinamori's legs.

"Please, Hinamori-san, eat up. The soup will help take the edge off of some of the medicines we had to use on you."

Hinamori stared somewhat sullenly at Unohana again, but at length took up the bowl and put it to her mouth, taking a few quiet sips before setting it back down. The taste of the chicken in the broth was good and flavorful, somewhat lightening her mood despite herself. Then, the memory and the blood and the sounds and the pain all came rushing back to sweep away the pleasant feeling, and she frowned, if only to keep tears from running down her face.

"I know you want to hear about what happened to your Captain," Unohana said gently as she stood over Hinamori, "but we can't tell you until you've made a fuller recovery and given your deposition to Captain Soifon."

Hinamori shook her head, pressing her lips into a line. "I can give my testimony right now, then. Get her here and I'll tell her everything."

Unohana shook her head, slightly moving her braid. "She's still investigating. For the time being, you need to rest and eat. There will be time for those things later."

Hinamori's right hand began to crinkle the sheets again. "Unohana-san, I'm not nearly as fragile as you and mostly everyone else seem to think. Please stop treating me like a child and tell me what I want to know."

"As I've said, you need to recover first," Unohana replied, and though she hadn't stopped smiling even once, the tone of her voice had the slightest tinge of ice around the edges, enough so that Hinamori thought she felt her blood freezing. "At that time, and not before, will we discuss the matter of what happened to Captain Aizen. I would therefore advise that you focus entirely on getting better so that you can find out what you wish to know so badly."

After a few moments of intense silence, Hinamori sighed and nodded, and Unohana's smile lost some of the stiff artificiality that it had held during her short lecture. "Good. Very, very good." With that, she placed the roll of bandage gauze, as well as the medicines she wanted Hinamori to take, on the bedside table, and said, "Once you're finished, I want you to take one of each of these pills. If you need any help, the call button is right on this table here." She pointed to a small, square, gray remote with a circular red button. "I'll be back soon to change your bandages."

With that, she left the room, turning left and down the hallway a bit to where a few chairs were pressed against the wall between Hinamori's room and the next one. In the seat closest to Hinamori's room sat none other than Toshirou Hitsugaya. His eyes were locked on the wall opposite him, though as he heard Unohana's gentle steps he jerked his head towards her in surprise, not relaxing until he realized who was approaching.

"How is she?" he asked quietly; though his expression was calm, his fingers were twitching irregularly, and the skin under his eyes was puffy and dark. He didn't have Hinamori's haggard, worn look, but Unohana, being Unohana, knew sleep deprivation when she saw it.

Unohana sighed slightly, and her smile shrank a bit. "She's awake, but most definitely on edge. She wants to know what happened to Captain Aizen very, very badly. If you still intend to visit her, you cannot tell her anything, not yet."

Hitsugaya shook his head, standing up and running a hand through his white shock of hair. "I would visit her, but the captains' meeting is going to happen soon. I'll see her later."

Unohana nodded in understanding, and Hitsugaya returned the nod shortly, then strode down the hall, his pace brisk and steady despite the cloud of exhaustion hanging around him. The captain of the Fourth watched him go for a few seconds, and then turned back towards Hinamori's room, shaking her head gently.

* * *

**11:45 AM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: First Division Barracks, Captains' Meeting Room**

As he stared out over the gathering of Captains standing in front of him, Captain-General Yamamoto, like always, felt the weight of his command on his back. Not long ago, he'd had twelve of Seireitei's strongest Soul Reapers standing right in front of him, three of whom he'd taught himself.

With one of them gone, and another missing, he felt a number of warring emotions. The pride he'd had at such a force being gathered under his command was damaged. The fact that one of his captains had been attacked and possibly killed outright enraged him, as did the fact that the perpetrator had gotten away.

Some part of him noted that it was not the time to be distracted by such things, and that there was supposed to be a meeting going on.

"Where is Captain Ichimaru?" Yamamoto asked, finally bringing himself out of his thoughts and onto the matter at hand. "I'm fairly certain that unless he tendered his resignation sometime in the last few days, he's still a captain."

Soifon frowned semi-pensively. "Actually, sir, I have some...unpleasant news. Lieutenant Kira came to my division right before I came here and informed me that the Captain hadn't returned to the Third Division after leaving last night." Her frown grew tighter. "I have my men searching the entire Seireitei for him. In roughly thirty to forty minutes they should start canvassing Soul Society proper."

Yamamoto, though force of will, kept his eyes closed and eyebrows loose, restraining his anger. "I see. And what of Lieutenant Hinamori?"

"She's only recently awoken," Unohana said, straightening slightly as the focus shifted to her. "She's eaten and taken her medicine, and I changed her bandages before leaving." She then turned to Soifon. "If you wish to interrogate her, she's more than willing to speak."

Soifon looked up at the Captain of the Fourth and nodded firmly. "I'll see to her immediately."

Yamamoto tapped the bottom of his cane against the ground, much more gently than usual. "Now, for the matter of Ichigo Kurosaki. Until we sort this matter out we cannot waste time on his training. Therefore I am announcing a suspension of his trips to Soul Society until further notice. Lieutenant Abarai's request to aid Kuchiki in patrol and supervision of Kurosaki has been approved for the next month on a probationary basis, at which point it will be reviewed again. Do not send her or Abarai back to Karakura Town until tomorrow." He then turned to his right, looking directly down at Soifon. "Interview Lieutenant Hinamori immediately. Whatever she knows, we need to know."

Soifon saluted, and Yamamoto straightened slightly, gripping the top of his gnarled staff slightly harder. "I want you all to have all officers in your divisions, seated or unseated, to adhere to a ten o'clock curfew until we know who attacked Captain Aizen and why. We will not lose another man or woman to this assailant. That will be all. Dismissed!"

With curt bows (and in the case of Kurotsuchi and Kenpachi, a grunt), the captains left the meeting room. Once it was completely empty, Yamamoto sighed and closed his eyes.

"Of all the times for something like this to happen, it had to be the same day that the 46 finally came to a decision about Urahara," he muttered to himself. "I have no fortune, it seems."

Slowly, he walked forward, gently tapping the bottom of his cane against the hardwood floor as the Butterfly-delivered message from the Central 46's primary judge, Number 1, echoed from his memory and throughout his mind.

_**After heavy deliberation it has been decided that plans to capture the renegade Kisuke Urahara must be prepared and executed as soon as possible. His lack of overt activity against Soul Society does not excuse his crimes from a century ago. He is to be brought in alive so that the location of those individuals directly affected by his work with Hollowfication can be discerned.**_

The emptiness of the room made Yamamoto's voice echo off the red walls even though he was talking at little more than a conversational volume.

"We can't spare any manpower towards that kind of effort until we know what happened to Aizen. And if we delay, the 46 is likely to force us to rush in half-cocked, and against Urahara that's the worst mistake to make."

His grip on his staff tightened.

"There will be no mistakes. He will face justice."

* * *

**12: 15 PM**

**Mitsumiya, Karakura Town: Below the Urahara Shop**

"Kaitou Kick~!"

A cloud of dust shot up into the artificial sky above Urahara's training grounds, and after a moment, Uryuu Ishida, dressed in the pure, blinding white of his Quincy outfit (stained with brown due to a few unfortunate meetings with the rocky ground) and the white protective headgear that Urahara provided during their first training session, dashed out from it, rapid-firing several arrows of Spiritual Energy back into the cloud.

To his complete lack of surprise, Kai, grinning madly, dashed out of the dust without as much as a scratch. In his battle body, the Mod Soul was notoriously difficult to hit, and his leg strength let him match or even outpace Ishida's now-weakened Hirenkyaku speed-stepping technique.

As Ishida readied his bow once more, Kai's hand darted to the ground, picking up a rock no bigger than his semi-broad palm. The Mod Soul then let it drop in front of his right foot before kicking it, and Ishida squawked in annoyance as the impromptu projectile shot right at him and forced him to roll out of the way and fire another set of shots.

Kai grinned, and easily sidestepped the rain of arrows. "Not bad! Pretty quick on your feet, ain't ya." His grin widened, and he came in with a strong jump, landing inches in front of Ishida. "But not fast enough!"

Ishida had just enough time to grimace before Kai's right foot flew forward in a straight upward kick, catching the Quincy on the jaw and sending him right into the sky.

As Ishida's pained yell cut the air, Ururu, unlike Kai, was on the defensive. On the other side of the training field, she and Tatsuki were trading blows back and forth, though their actual methods of dodging and countering varied. Ururu was, true to her boxing, bobbing and weaving under every punch and kick that Tatsuki threw out, and would on occasion lash out with a straight, a hook, or even more rarely, an uppercut. In contrast, Tatsuki would block most of the blows Ururu laid out before attacking with chops or kicks.

Orihime and Chad were sitting on the sidelines as the battle raged on; Chad, in fact, was lying on the ground as Orihime used the Souten Kisshun on him to patch up a few painful punches he'd taken from Ururu. Personally, Orihime hadn't seen that much combat, as Tsubaki's speed had been much reduced the few times that she'd shot him at Ururu. The aggressive 'fairy' had explained to Orihime that without strong willpower, he was weak, but nothing he threatened to do to her could put her in the state of mind to actually try to attack Ururu with the Koten Zanshun.

As Tatsuki roared and dropped an axe kick down on Ururu's head, Orihime sighed in satisfaction and recalled Shun'ou and Ayame, dissolving the Souten Kisshun. "How do you feel, Sado-kun?"she asked.

Chad got to his feet and shook out his legs, then experimentally flexed his deactivated right arm and rolled his shoulders, noting that all the soreness was indeed gone. "Much better. Thank you."

Orihime smiled and stood up, crossing her arms behind her back. "No problem. I'm just happy to see that Shun'ou and Ayame are useful."

Despite the expression on her face Chad could tell that something was bothering Orihime, but didn't get the chance to ask what, specifically, as Tatsuki cried out in pain. Automatically, his head and Orihime's snapped up to the fight in progress, where they saw that Ururu was using her right forearm to hold up Tatsuki's leg, blocking the axe kick, while her left fist was buried deep into Tatsuki's gut. The little girl then ducked backward, allowing Tatsuki to take a staggering half-step forward, before moving in with three punches—one straight to the sternum, another to the chest, just above the first, and a final straight to the chin that sent Tatsuki flying through the air and into a large rock standing right next to Orihime and Chad.

As bits of the rock tumbled down from where Tatsuki's spread-eagle body had broken the stone, Ururu punched her glove-covered knuckles together twice and raised one of her fists to head level, extending it toward Tatsuki and the others.

"Freedom...Punch."

Tatsuki's response was to groan before she fell face-first on the ground. Orihime squeaked in fright and immediately put a hand to her hairpins.

"Shun'ou, Ayame. Souten Kisshun, I reject!"

While a groaning Tatsuki was enveloped by the healing shield, Chad turned to face Ururu and walked forward, looming over the little girl with unintentional menace once he got about three feet away from her.

"My turn again, right?" he asked.

Ururu nodded.

Chad's right arm flashed white, and the armor wrapped around his arm instantly, buzzing strongly. After flexing it, he extended it in Ururu's direction, curling his hand into a fist. Ururu's response was to duck into a boxing stance once more, and in a few moments, they were locked in a stare-down.

From where she'd fallen, Tatsuki, now lying on her side, shook her head weakly and sighed. "Damn, she's strong. There's no way either me or Chad is going to beat her at this rate."

"I don't know if that's the point, Tatsuki-chan," Orihime said. "I know you've been doing karate for a long time now, but these guys are on a completely different level when it comes to the spiritual stuff. We kind of don't have any chance at beating them yet."

"I know, I know," Tatsuki replied, rolling onto her back and attempting to sit up. Her head smacked against the Souten Kisshun when she managed to get her waist perpendicular to the ground; spitting out a curse, she laid back down, rubbing the new red spot on her forehead.

"Tatsuki-chan, you have to stay still! You're still hurt, you know!"

"I couldn't tell."

With a grunt, Chad lunged, drawing both girls' attention away from Tatsuki's latest blunder. Ururu crossed her forearms together for an overhead block of Chad's incoming punch; her timing was spot on, but the force of the hit sent her skidding backwards quite a few feet.

Feet pounding, Chad rushed in after her with a shorter blow from his left arm. Ururu quickly dropped out of her guarding stance and ducked under the attack, then countered with a rapid set of jabs to his stomach, knocking him back a bit. Unperturbed, Chad stepped right back towards her, and the fight raged on.

Fifteen seconds into the fight, the Souten Kisshun dissolved, allowing Tatsuki to sit up properly to catch her breath. By that time, Chad had managed to score a hit on Ururu's chin, though with the (admittedly very tight) gloves that he was wearing, he hadn't hurt her much, if at all.

It was right about this time that Orihime's nose caught whiff of a familiar, comforting scent, and she looked towards the entrance of the training room with a curious, yet expectant smile on her face.

"Kurosaki-kun?"

Tatsuki frowned at Orihime, wondering what the bubbly girl was talking about, but cut her reply short as her spiritual sense confirmed what Orihime just said; he was controlling his Spiritual Energy and Pressure very tightly, allowing only the bare minimum to leak from his body, but Ichigo had indeed just arrived in the training room, and was coming their way.

In about two or three seconds, both Ichigo and Urahara came out of a Flash Step, landing from about three inches off the ground to stand right next to the rock that Tatsuki had been punched into. Once settled, Ichigo looked over to where the girls sat, and offered a jaunty, two-fingered salute, while Urahara nodded his head at the three teens before departing himself.

"Hey, guys. How's it going?" the Deputy Reaper asked.

Tatsuki was still miffed at Ichigo regarding the argument they'd had in front of the shop, and so she crossed her scaly arms over one another and looked off to the side. In contrast, Orihime smiled pleasantly at her crush, fighting the urge to wring her hands with the nervousness that she most assuredly felt.

"Well, Sado-kun and Tatsuki-chan are just practicing with Ururu-chan over there," she said, pointing to where Chad and Ururu, ignorant of anything in the world except each other, were still exchanging blows. "Ishida-kun and Kai-kun are training somewhere else." Her index fingers tapped against each other nervously as she pressed her palms together. "Kurosaki-kun. Are you still upset about before?"

Ichigo's scowl cut deeper into his face for a few moments, but eventually he pulled it back to normal, sighing. "A little bit, yes. But I got over the worst of it."

"Yeah, I bet," Tatsuki replied, snorting out a small plume of smoke and steam. "Your face is still all scrunched up and annoyed."

"I did say I was still 'a little bit' upset, didn't I?" Ichigo said, allowing that annoyance to come back to the fore as the corner of his mouth twitched upwards. "...anyway. As I was trying to say before Tatsuki so rudely interrupted me, I was upset for a while, but between doing patrol and thinking about what you guys said...well, I realized that even if my situation was different, I would have done the same thing in yours." He then looked up into the artificial sky, scowling deeper once more.

"Besides that, you're my friends. I'm not gonna just up and abandon you over something like this. Even if I'm mad at you, I won't throw away what we've got just because I don't agree with your bad decisions."

Tatsuki stood up in a rush and sauntered over to Ichigo, purple eyes blazing with annoyance; however, she stopped short when Ichigo looked at her with a satisfied smirk. After pausing for a few seconds, she shook her head and sighed, realizing that he'd provoked her on purpose.

"As long as you're not gonna be a jackass about it, then whatever," she said at last. "So, what are you here for anyway? Was it just to apologize?"

"Well, yeah, but also, I guess I wanted to see what you all were up to." He watched Ururu lay into Chad's chin with a wicked uppercut, but it didn't take him too long to recover and counter with a strong punch from his right arm, sending her flying. However, it didn't take much for her to flip back upright in midair, land safely, and rush in with more quick jabs. "Since I have no idea when I'll be able to go back to Soul Society with things as they are now, I figured I'd come practice with you guys a little bit, just for today."

Tatsuki eyed Zangetsu warily, frowning. Even with her tougher skin she didn't want to take her chances with a blade. Ichigo saw this and shrugged his zanpakutou from his shoulders, setting it gently on the ground, before cracking his knuckles and settling into a fighting stance. Sighing, Tatsuki finally got to her feet and squared her shoulders.

"Then let's do it."

As her friend and her crush got ready to fight, Orihime felt two different emotions. One was relief, knowing that Tatsuki and Ichigo were on the road to making up with each other. The other was concern, sparked by what Ichigo said just moments before.

"_Since I have no idea when I'll be able to go back to Soul Society with things as they are now..."_

He'd hid his slight worry and hesitation from Tatsuki, but Orihime had been watching Ichigo for some time. She knew his moods about as well as he did. She knew something was bothering him.

The only question was whether or not he would share that something.

Knowing him, he wouldn't.

* * *

**12: 15 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society, Fourth Division Barracks: Medical Ward**

To make things relatively more comfortable for the still-injured Hinamori, Soifon elected to sit while interrogating her, leaving one of her subordinates outside to take notes so that she could effectively grill the Fifth's Lieutenant (and technically, Acting Captain) on a one-to-one basis.

Except that she really didn't have to do much grilling at all. Hinamori's story was short, sweet, and to the point. The Lieutenant only got emotional when it came to describing who had attacked both her and Aizen.

"Captain Ichimaru?" Soifon asked, unable to keep the surprise from her voice. "Are you certain?"

Hinamori's baggy eyes were definitely watering a bit, but she composed herself and nodded once in response to the question. Soifon could see the hard resolve in the small Reaper's eyes as clear as day.

"Absolutely positive. I know I saw him. I know I heard him. I felt Shinsou piercing through my stomach." Her unfocused gaze, lost in memories, became murderously clear and intent. "He's going to pay for what he's done."

Soifon looked out the window to her left and resisted the urge to scruff up her own hair in frustration. Her men were already spread out over Seireitei, and now they were tracking a murder suspect that could match or kill them if they tried to capture him. Worse yet, they had no motive established for Ichimaru's psychotic break, and that meant that she couldn't anticipate what he was going to do next.

If there was anything Soifon hated, it was the unanticipated.

"Yes, he will," the Second's captain said aloud. "Once we find him." She stood up, pushing the chair back slightly, and looked down on Hinamori, still frowning. "Thank you for your cooperation."

Without further preamble, she left the room, and Hinamori closed her eyes; her hands, resting on her legs, crumpled up the bedsheets beneath her once more.

"Captain Aizen..."

As Soifon walked down the hallway with her subordinate, she began to rap out orders quietly but firmly.

"Return to the division and prepare an emergency broadcast via the Soul Phone network. Inform all patrolling members that Captain Ichimaru is to be treated as a hostile suspect until further notice, and that he should not be engaged under any circumstances."

The Reaper nodded his head. "Yes, ma'am."

Soifon rounded the next corner first, leading them both to the front door. "Any news from the team that's investigating Captain Aizen's room?"

"Yes, ma'am. I got a message in the middle of the interrogation. They've found a letter addressed to Lieutenant Hinamori and are holding it at the Second Division for you to examine."

Internally, Soifon half-smiled, half-grimaced. _Captain Aizen might have been anticipating this, then. But now we may find out what set all of this madness off. _"Then I shall accompany you there."

Again, her subordinate nodded, and Soifon allowed her hand to tense into a fist as they exited the main building and headed down the stairs.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Much to my displeasure, this chapter is indeed a month overdue, and from the looks of things I may not be able to do the triple update that I would normally do to rectify the chapter disparity. Part of it was RL obligations, part of it was writers' block—I have learned that knowing where you want to go does nothing to help you get there._

_Additionally, things are still a bit busy, but I think I can probably get back on the 2x a month wagon if I'm a little more clever with my time._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_None this chapter._

_Student Review Corner:_

_LaughingSpider (Ch. 20): As mostly everyone can tell, First Semester has been a bit light on the fighting, so your observation about Ichigo's lack of impetus does have merit. Whether that means we will see Ichigo with/without Bankai later, I unfortunately can't say. You'll have to wait and see~_

_SilverStella (Ch. 20): That little part of the chapter was to give Iba some screen time mostly. Ichigo's statements aren't meant to encourage or discourage anything regarding pairings, mostly because romance is kind of secondary in this story (read; may not come up very seriously at all, much as I would like to try to integrate it). As for Orihime, I guess I sort of did tone her down a bit, hmm? Personally I don't think she really deserves all the hate she gets, so that probably affected or outright changed how I chose to portray her._

_Jozern (Chapter 20): Keigo and Mizuiro developing powers...while that was stated to be Kubo's plan at one point, I'm not sure I'll go that way. Not that I dislike their characters per se, but I'm not sure what I can do with them at this point in time. It is also my hope to at least write and finish part 2, as part 3 would not be so integral to resolving the storyline due to the characters it would focus on and the period of time which it covers. My preliminary idea-planning stage puts Reform School (working title for part 3) at least five to ten years after what would pass for Substitute School's Deicide arc, and the focus would not be on Ichigo and his friends, though they would show up or at least be mentioned in the narrative—hence the name "Reform School" as opposed to "Substitute School"._

_Also, just so that it is clear as day for anyone still wondering or unsure, I will go on the record here: Kai is Kon. This was indeed planned from his very first appearance, and while I did introduce it to screw with people's heads, I didn't pull it out of nowhere; look back at Lesson 11 and notice what he says to Urahara about Soul Society, as well as his mention of "this body" in Lesson 13 for proof. As far as how I came up with Kai's name, all I had to do was look at canon. In a chapter of Bleach, Kon actually states that he wanted to be called Kai (which comes from __Kai__zou Konpaku, the Japanese term for Mod Souls), and that Ichigo gave him the name Kon because "Kai" was too cool. By proxy, __Kai__tou __Kon__dou represents the word "Kaizou Konpaku", canon!Kon's name, and the name that canon!Kon wanted—in other words, a triple joke whammy__._

_So. Chapter 22. Hasn't been started yet, but I have an idea of what's going to go on in it—I just have to get the finer details ironed out.. Due to how long this one took, I might have trouble getting out Chapter 22 before November, but I will try my best to not repeat missing my deadline. _

_Hope you guys enjoyed this one. See you next class._

_~ZS_


	22. Lesson 22: Incident Investigation 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 22: Incident Investigation 101, or Plots Made in the Dark_

* * *

**Sunday, August 18, 8 AM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Second Division Barracks, Captain's Quarters**

By human standards, Soifon had had a long, illustrious career as the head of the Second Division. In the span of just about a century, she had managed to take the position that she'd inherited from one Yoruichi Shihouin and make it her own by concretely uniting the Stealth Force and the Second Division. On top of that, her own relentless training made her the foremost hand-to-hand combatant in all of Soul Society. She'd pushed herself farther than anyone asked or expected her to, and the end result was that there was little, if anything, that could surprise her. Not anymore.

And yet, what she read in the letter Aizen addressed to Hinamori chilled her blood. Her men had yet to find Ichimaru—they'd spent an entire night looking for him, to no avail, and were out searching for him even as she pored over the letter, but when they did, he had a lot to answer for.

"Colluding with Hollows, and Hueco Mundo," Soifon muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose to try and stay awake. "This is mad. How could Ichimaru even consider something like this?"

She rose from her seat at her desk and shook her head, causing the rings at the ends of her braids to jangle and shift slightly. She looked out the window, noting the position of the still-rising sun, and then reached for her Soul Phone to check the steady stream of encoded messages coming in from the search parties.

"_North District 41 is clear. No signs of the captain."_

"_West District 53. Captain Ichimaru has not been sighted."_

"_East District 39 is clear. Moving on to District 40."_

The differing paces of the search parties was the fault of the district layouts, Soifon knew. Some were small and easy to search; others were large, disorganized, and in some cases obstructively hostile towards Soul Reapers.

Soifon knew and understood this for what it was, and yet those messages all but whipped her into a fury—a fury that she grabbed and ruthlessly crushed with the iron grip of discipline, but a fury nevertheless. Knowing what she did about Ichimaru now only served to drive her mad when she saw that he continued to evade justice. If he still intended to follow through with his plan, then they had to find him. There were no other options.

After a few moments of silent contemplation, staring down at the letter on her desk, Soifon picked it up, folded it neatly, and tucked it into her inner robe. Her gaze turned towards the northeast, where she knew Yamamoto was meditating, stilling himself, in his office.

"The Captain-General has to know," she said to herself, striding towards the door. "Ichimaru is a traitor, and the decisions he has made will get us all killed."

* * *

**9:30 AM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase: Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

After his sparring session with Tatsuki yesterday, in which he gave as good as he got and still wore himself out, Ichigo was more than willing to stay in bed for as long as it took him to stop feeling the pain from her flaming punches and powerful shoulder throws.

Unfortunately for him, his weariness did nothing to change the fact that he was a deputy Soul Reaper, which by necessity meant that there was no such thing as sleeping it off unless you were on your deathbed.

When his Soul Phone buzzed like an angry hornet atop his bedside table, Ichigo groaned and covered his head with his pillow, though whether he was trying to block out the sound or commit suicide via smothering himself to death was less than certain. Of course, the device kept on thrumming, ignorant of Ichigo's efforts to ignore it, until he at last gave up on sleeping and snatched it up to see who was bothering him and why they were doing so.

_Lt. Abarai and I are waiting outside. Get up and come on. We have to talk about what's going on in Seireitei and how it impacts your schedule._

_Rukia_

A different sort of fatigue overtook him then, as the reminder of what had happened to Aizen and Hinamori stung bitterly in his mind. With only the barest grunt of what might have been complaint, Ichigo got out of bed and went over to his desk to get Alfred.

Moments later, Ichigo, in spirit form, hopped from the window of his bedroom and landed lightly on the sidewalk. The sun was up, but had yet to start oppressing the town with its most powerful heatwaves. Rukia and Renji were standing together, not even a few feet away, with their backs turned to the clinic and watching the sun rise.

"Hey, lovebirds," Ichigo said, pitching his voice to be heard at a distance. "If you're done being all romantic, can we start talking about what you called me down here for so early in the morning?"

His taunt had the immediate effect that he wanted, causing both Renji and Rukia to whirl around with red faces. Rukia, in usual form, recovered first, and responded by puffing herself up to start shouting. Renji put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head, though he was still somewhat embarrassed himself.

"He's just teasing. Get yourself together, Rukia."

"I _know_ that," Rukia said, frowning in annoyance as her face rapidly cooled down. Ichigo allowed himself to chuckle, and then let out a breath through his nose, calming himself and wiping the joviality out of his expression. "All right. Seriously. What's the situation?"

After a moment of giving Ichigo the stink-eye, Rukia relented and sobered up herself. "At this point the popular word is that Captain Aizen is dead. There were Second Division investigators crawling all over Seireitei and the Soul Society yesterday, and they're still out in force looking for the Captain's body or for whoever attacked him."

"No one knows who attacked him yet?" Ichigo asked in annoyance. "Your text message said that Hinamori was injured. Doesn't that mean that she was at the scene, or close enough to it to see something?"

"Captain Soifon is the one responsible for the Lieutenant's interview. At this point in time the only people that would be privy to whatever Hinamori knows would be the captains," Renji replied, scratching his head and adjusting his goggle-visor. "My understanding was that Captain Soifon did go to get Hinamori's side of the story yesterday, but even with Seireitei on high alert calling all the captains together still takes some time—and even if the Captains know, that doesn't mean the Lieutenants or the other members of the division will know right away."

Ichigo's foot unconsciously began to move along the ground; his sandal made a soft rasping sound against the concrete, but he paid no mind to it. "So you basically know nothing about this situation at all and came here to tell me that you know nothing. That's a great help."

"Well, the news is only going to get worse," Rukia added, folding her arms. "For the time being you're not going to Soul Society. Not until we know who attacked the captain and that we're positive that we understand why. So in order to keep your training on course, we'll have to stay here and work with you every day." She sighed. "That also means we need a place to rest, and neither myself nor Renji can pay for a hotel. So it's your responsibility to host us."

Ichigo groaned, but internally his mind raced; this was putting a monkey wrench into things in so, so many ways. For starters, no more trips to Urahara's place, and he would have to find some way to keep his friends in the know about their patrol schedules so that they wouldn't be seen going to or from Urahara's place. At least not until he could figure out how to break the news to Renji and Rukia without either of them freaking out on him for knowing that his friends get their powers back and not reporting it. "So what, you guys are gonna stalk me all day?"

Renji knocked his knuckles against Ichigo's forehead. "Hello? She said 'host' us. That means a place to sleep and food to eat, Ichigo."

Ichigo brushed Renji off and shrugged. "Food is no problem, I can just give you stuff left over from dinner. Sleep isn't either, just stay in my room and don't make noise and we'll be fine."

"What Renji is trying to say, Ichigo, is that we'll have to take physical form in order to stay with you and pull this mission off," Rukia said. "There are times where we need to rest in non-spiritual bodies, if we stay in the Living World. The Twelfth Division will send us those bodies later, but that won't help us find a place to rest and neither of us can pay for a hotel or other kind of temporary lodging right now."

Gears began to grind in Ichigo's head. Were it not for the fact that his friends would likely keep going to see Urahara, he would have shipped them both off to Orihime or Chad, who were living with no one else and would have the space to accommodate both of them. In such close proximity, though, there was always the chance that somehow Rukia or Renji would find out about what was going on with Urahara before he could find a way to break the news properly to either of his senior Soul Reapers, much less convince them to not report back to Soul Society. "I don't think we even have space at our place to accommodate two people and I have no idea how I'd even talk my old man into letting you two stay."

Rukia actually allowed herself a sly grin that for some reason made Ichigo's blood run extremely cold. "Oh, that part won't be a problem. Just play along when I tell you to. We'll be just fine. For now, though, go back to your room, get up, be normal. We'll put the plan into action after we come back from patrol and training."

The grin grew wider. Ichigo's stomach sank deeper.

* * *

**9:45 AM**

**Karakura Town, Mitsumiya: Urahara Shop**

Oftentimes, Kisuke Urahara found himself wishing, however vaguely, that he hadn't had such an unfortunate turn of events in his life.

A long time ago, the only thing he ever really had to worry about was getting a short, trigger-tempered blonde onto his "side", as it were, and managing a division that had been more or less thrust into his hands.

Now, he was teaching three ordinary high school students how to kill Hollows while trying to anticipate the movements of his former employers as well as the traitor he knew was in their ranks.

None of this was made any less complicated by the information that his longtime friend and steady companion now had for him, which she was imparting over a nice, hot cup of tea.

"I knew Ichigo-kun wasn't telling me something the other day," Urahara said with a sigh, scratching his messy mop of blonde hair as Yoruichi took a sip of tea. They were sitting in the main dining room behind the storefront of the shop; Jinta and Tessai were working the counter, as they had been for the last few days. Yoruichi herself had been gone for the last couple of days, and had only returned in the wee hours of that Sunday morning. "Aizen's dead, Ichimaru's missing...it all reeks of plots and lies to me. I don't like it at all."

"Just be grateful that there doesn't seem to be any decisions regarding us out there," Yoruichi replied tiredly, resisting the urge to scrub her eyes. "I would've tried to check out Soifon or Yamamoto had I the time, but I figured it would be better to make it back here with what I knew instead of getting caught somewhere that I wasn't supposed to be. Black cats are still somewhat conspicuous, you know." She shook herself slightly to stay awake, sorting through her brain for anything else she might have left out. "I did hear that one of the lieutenants was assigned to come back with the Kuchiki girl to help train Kurosaki, so there is that to be aware of."

Urahara took a sip from his own cup, and rubbed a hand on one of his knees. "Ichigo-kun won't betray our confidence. He understands why we are the way we are." He frowned.  
"Of course, if his associates don't see things the same way, _then_ we're in trouble. Bad enough that the young are hard-headed—worse when they're hard-headed and can't see anything but black and white."

"You can't begrudge them just because of the way they were taught," Yoruichi said, sighing. "That's like hating a baby because of how it cries."

Urahara waved his hand around airily, taking another sip of his tea. "There's no space in me for grudges, my dear Yoru-chan. Far too busy for all of that nonsense."

Yoruichi pawed at her face sleepily, and yawned a bit. "If you say so, Kisuke."

"How long has it been since you last slept, anyway?" Urahara asked, his lightheartedness giving way to actual concern. "You look like death warmed over."

Yoruichi stifled another yawn and looked somewhat listlessly in Urahara's direction as she took another sip of tea. It was keeping her awake, yes, but only just so. "I took a two, three-hour catnap before I managed to make my way back. I was running about getting information for you almost non-stop before then. You tell me how I should look and feel after that."

Urahara scratched his stubble-covered chin and grinned. "Point taken. So how about you take an actual nap, get some rest? I'm certain you're eager to get back to practicing with Soubou-chan, since I so rudely cut into your training time with my rather selfish request."

Yoruichi took up her teacup one more time and tilted her head back, emptying the cylindrical container completely. She then rolled to her feet with a natural grace that ignored her exhaustion and smiled somewhat cutely at Urahara. "You're too kind, Kisuke."

Urahara simply smiled and dipped his head. "A gentleman knows when to let a lady get her rest."

As Yoruichi left for the bedroom she shared with Urahara, his smile faded as he let his mind return to the problem at hand. Aizen was missing, possibly dead, as was Ichimaru. The fact that this matter involved those two, of all people, gave him more than enough reason to worry about what the hell was going on.

"They've got a traitor in their midst," Urahara said, running a hand through his messy mop of hair. "And there's no way of knowing what they have planned for us. If there's anything I hate more, it's not having knowledge of what's going on."

* * *

**11:45 AM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: First Division Barracks, Captains' Meeting Room**

If there was one thing that Captain-General Yamamoto hated more than lawbreakers, it was nasty surprises. As commander of Soul Society's military arm, Yamamoto was used to planning for every little detail of every single operation, mundane or extraordinary, and when his plans were thrown off track, getting them back to their proper place proved to be a task he found immensely aggravating at best.

When Soifon delivered a particularly bothersome surprise to him early that Sunday morning—that surprise being her report on the letter that her investigators had found in Aizen's room—Yamamoto's Spiritual Energy had spiked so sharply that he'd let off a burst of Spiritual Pressure which knocked a number of individuals in the vicinity of the entire First Division, which was a fairly large building in and of itself, off their feet or into unconsciousness. Even when he'd brought himself back under control, his eyes were fully open and burning with a light that promised nothing but fiery pain for Ichimaru once the traitorous Third Division Captain was found.

Over the next half an hour, Hell Butterflies were sent out to the captains, informing them of a meeting at 11:30 AM sharp; the intervening time was meant to give Yamamoto enough room to finish his interrupted meditation and calm down, but by the time the other ten captains made it to the meeting room, their Captain-General was even more tense, if that was at all possible.

Ukitake, Unohana, and Kyouraku, being Yamamoto's students and oldest subordinates, could tell that the Captain-General's hackles were raised from the moment they stepped into the meeting room and moved to stand in their customary places; no cushions were set out and no table was in the center of the room, which meant that this matter was extremely serious. Yamamoto's Spiritual Energy seemed to suffuse the very air, making it noticeably, almost uncomfortably, hot, and his eyes were half-open, giving his otherwise livid face a somewhat dull look at first glance.

"Captain Soifon!" he said, his voice carrying loud and clear through the hot, muggy air. "Deliver your report!"

Nodding, Soifon stepped out of line and turned to face the other captains, desperately trying to block out the image of the smoldering fire that was ready to burn behind her. "My stealth forces searched the Fifth Division Barracks and found a letter written by Captain Aizen, addressed to Lieutenant Hinamori. I read the contents and delivered a longer report to the Captain-General this morning; in short, Aizen somehow stumbled across a plot that...Captain...Ichimaru hatched to betray Soul Society and ally with Hueco Mundo and the Hollows. The first part of that was apparently the mass assault of Hollows on Karakura Town."

The heat in the room flared up briefly, followed by a similar surge in conflicting Spiritual Pressures from most of the captains, and accompanying expressions of rage. The only two that seemed oblivious to the change in the environment were Zaraki and Kurotsuchi, whose faces suggested that the news was about as important as hearing that a bug had been crushed under some hapless fool's foot.

Tousen was the first to recover, and his voice was noticeably strained and upset when he spoke up. Behind his semi-opaque goggles, it was easy to see his brows tighten. "But why? What would he possibly have to gain by doing such a cowardly, disgusting thing? Does he not understand that Hollows are simply creatures of base instinct? They shall betray him as soon as they get what they want!"

"It is likely that he does not care about that, or has some form of controlling them," Soifon said, carefully controlling her own reaction. "Aizen here makes mention of the fact that Ichimaru isn't alone in this venture. There's someone that he reports to, and that someone may have an understanding of how to 'distort the barrier between Hollow and Soul Reaper, and control the resultant beings'."

"That sounds very much like the incident a century ago," Kyouraku said; his voice was undeniably tense, tighter than a bowstring, despite the rather carefree tone of his observation. "Those captains that were Hollowfied clearly displayed behavior fitting of a mix between Soul Reapers and Hollows, didn't they?"

"They did," Ukitake replied, biting his lip. "But then, does that mean that Kisuke Urahara is involved in this? What did the letter have to say about this superior of Ichimaru's, Captain Soifon?"

Soifon shook her head, whipping her braids around. "Very little. Aizen states his belief that it could be Urahara due to the nature of the work, but that he has no way of concluding the identity for certain. Not without trailing Ichimaru to Hueco Mundo—which he was intent on doing on the night he was attacked, according to the letter. The message was supposed to be for Hinamori to read herself and then delivered to one of us, if things transpired such that his mission failed."

_Which they obviously did,_ she thought to herself. _And under normal circumstances, I'd say that the letter itself is suspicious—how it so neatly resolves the matter of why Ichimaru would attack, explains the incident in Karakura, and how it provides very little concrete evidence of these betrayals that Ichimaru planned aside from that. But the fact that Ichimaru did actively attack Aizen suggests that some part of it, if not all of it, is the truth._

"It is a bit too convenient that this letter appeared when it did, so I am currently comparing its handwriting style to that of Captain Aizen's other documents to try and verify its legitimacy. Preliminary examination does suggest that it is the genuine article, but I will not be able to state this in confidence until I have had time to examine it completely."

"And what about Ichimaru?" Hitsugaya asked. "Are you still searching for him? Surely your men can't confront him directly without incurring casualties, and if he's already left Soul Society somehow then we are still in a bad situation."

"The Twelfth Division has already seen to that," Kurotsuchi replied, his tone bored. "Captain Soifon came to me immediately and demanded logs of all the inter-dimensional activities we'd logged over the last 72 hours. There was no abnormal activity to report."

"As we speak, my men have reached the fringes of Soul Society itself, and will be performing the same level of search as they work their way back in towards Seireitei. If the craven fool is hiding somewhere in this plane of existence, we will find him. I swear this to you."

Zaraki eyed Soifon rather flatly, still appearing to be immensely uninterested in the conversation. "An' what if one of us finds him instead? Can we maim him a bit before we haul his ass back to you for some old-fashioned torture?"

"Not beyond what is necessary for him to live," Soifon said, fighting to keep her lip from curling in distaste at Zaraki's obvious hankering for blood. "We do need to interrogate him, after all, and corpses tell no tales."

Despite the restriction, Zaraki's mouth finally twisted itself into his favorite feral grin. "Well that works for me. I'll have my boys start looking around for the scumbag then. Maybe I'll join them, take a few late-night strolls, the whole nine yards. Could be interesting, what I turn up."

"Am I to assume that the restrictions on movement and curfew are not to be lifted, then?" Byakuya asked, slightly shifting his zanpakutou where it was sheathed at his side.

"Unless you intend to mobilize your forces like Zaraki no, they are not to be," Yamamoto said. "For now, I would much rather that all of you start to look over your Divisions and start selecting individuals that would be most suited to a strike-force mission in the Living World. Recent orders from Central 46 are calling for Urahara's head, and whether he is involved in this mess with Ichimaru or not, we need to be prepared to address him once Ichimaru is captured, interrogated, and killed." The heat in the room began to rise again. "Keep in mind that our potential opponents are likely to include Yoruichi Shihouin and Tessai Tsubakishi in addition to Urahara himself. Do not consider volunteering any one of your members who cannot hold themselves well in a high-stakes battle where Hakuda and Kidou will be the primary weapons."

At mention of Yoruichi, Soifon felt something clench in her stomach, but she again brought her discipline to bear by suppressing it almost immediately. Her vendetta with the former Goddess of Flash was indescribably personal, and so she would have to make a very good case for placing herself on that team list when the time came, and not before—if she intended to do so successfully, her personal feelings had to be well controlled.

"Unless there are any objections or statements that any of you to make, that is all I have to say regarding this matter, and this meeting is adjourned. Be vigilant and have a roster of fighters prepared for my review as soon as possible! Dismissed!"

With that, Yamamoto left the room briskly, and Soifon smoothly stepped back into line to let him pass. Once he was gone, the captains broke the line and began to depart, with Zaraki and Kurotsuchi taking an impatient, disinterested lead. Noticing that Ukitake, Kyouraku, and Unohana were all walking together, Hitsugaya moved to catch up to them, clearing his throat slightly.

"Captain Unohana. Might I ask how Hinamori is doing? Is she well enough to take visitors now?"

Unohana stopped walking once she heard the question leave the young captain's mouth. Ukitake and Kyouraku looked at her and each other with clear signs of wanting to discuss something, but Unohana gave them a look which said _I'll be with you two shortly; _their response was to turn and continue walking in acknowledgment of her wishes.

"She's still on bed rest, but yes, you may stop by to see her," Unohana replied, facing Hitsugaya with her ever-present smile. "Her attitude is as improved as it can be considering the situation and her own feelings. I would avoid making mention of Captain Aizen, however, even if she brings him up. Her health is likely to take a bad turn if she becomes too stressed."

Hitsugaya simply nodded. "I understand. I'll be careful not to agitate her."

Unohana returned the nod with one of her own. "Then, Hitsugaya-kun, if you'll excuse me. I've left Captains Ukitake and Kyouraku waiting."

With that, she bowed and went to catch up with her fellow captains. Hitsugaya watched her go briefly, and then left the meeting room with purposeful strides.

He owed someone special a visit.

* * *

**12:15 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Fourth Division Barracks**

Once upon a time, Hinamori would have been hard-pressed to find a sight more relaxing than the one outside her window. The sunlight was bright and pure, and birdsong was wafting through the air, as light as a feather. It was a day that anyone would have called perfect, at the bare minimum.

But, in her semi-despondent state, Hinamori noticed none of this. Her sorrow at her captain's disappearance (_he's not dead, he's not dead, he's NOT DEAD)_ and her uncharacteristic desire to avenge herself on Ichimaru until he _(the fox-faced bastard)_ was a smear of blood and grease on the ground was overwhelming, and she only barely kept it under control, tucked behind a mask of genuine, if slightly exaggerated, shell-shock.

These dark and gloomy thoughts were eventually interrupted by the sound of her door opening. Sullenly, she looked up from her sheets, but the second she made eye contact with her visitor's sea-green eyes and white shock of hair, her face split into a broad, beaming smile.

"Toshirou," she whispered, momentarily forgetting the normal level of formality she reserved for the semi-infrequent times that they met when they were off duty.

Hitsugaya nodded as he approached her bedside, his expression softening to something that was almost a small smile. "Sorry, Momo. I've been...busy lately. Otherwise I would've come to see you as soon as you were doing better."

Hinamori shook her head as vigorously as she could manage. "I understand, Toshirou, it's all right. Please, don't feel bad!"

Under normal circumstances, Hitsugaya would have told anyone else, even Hinamori, to refer to him as Captain Hitsugaya. But considering what she'd been through and how she was still feeling, he didn't bother to be as picky as he could have been. His heart just wasn't in it. "Well, for now things seemed to have settled down, so let's just...sit and talk for a little while." He grabbed a nearby chair and sat down in it without much preamble, a respectful distance from the bed. "Please don't tell me I'm your first visitor, though. That would just be depressing."

Hinamori shook her head. "A few of the men and women from the Fifth have come by. They haven't stayed for very long, though. Hanajima-san's been busy trying to keep the division together while I've been recovering."

Hitsugaya didn't recognize the name, but he knew that with Aizen gone and Hinamori still in recovery, the third seat would have been the one primarily responsible for the health and welfare of the Division until Hinamori got out to assume control. That said, any extended visits would have been even more detrimental to the daily function of the division, and wouldn't have been tolerated even if Aizen was the one sitting in the bed and Hinamori was the one in charge.

"I see. Is there any word on when you're going to get out of here?"

Hinamori nodded and shifted in bed slightly. "I've almost recovered. By Tuesday I should be back to work."

What went unsaid, but was promptly understood, was that she would be taking over all of Aizen's duties until a new captain was appointed. There was no telling how long it would be until a new captain came to the division, and it was all but impossible for her to take that position herself with her lack of experience and still-immature power.

Not wanting to even broach that unspoken subject, Hitsugaya simply nodded. "That's good to hear."

Silence fell after that. It was fairly comfortable, but for the one topic that neither of them wanted to broach. Eventually, though, Hinamori was the one to do it, clearing her throat and fixing Hitsugaya with a hard, grim-faced stare.

"I've come to a decision, Toshirou. Once I get out of here, I want you to help me train."

Hitsugaya's lip twitched upwards as he repressed the first response that came to his mind. He knew precisely why she was asking this of him and he had to dissuade her without being overly critical. "Even if you're medically cleared, you won't have time to take up my kind of regimen," he said. "You'll need to focus on your division."

Hinamori's back straightened further, and her expression got even tighter. "I know that, but this is just as important. They need a leader. A good, strong one that won't shrink away from danger. If I want to be that leader, then I have to train hard."

Sighing, Hitsugaya closed his eyes for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose with his pointer finger and thumb, then reopened them, focused intently on his childhood friend. "I have no problem training you, but no matter how strong you get, it won't bring him back. You're mad if you think I'd let you go off after Ichimaru, on your own or not. I don't mind helping you, Momo, but not when you're like this, and not if you're planning to take some kind of revenge on Ichimaru."

"Toshirou, you don't expect me to just let Captain Aizen go unavenged, do you?" Hinamori replied angrily, fists balling up. "You're not that naïve. He meant so much to me and that bastard Ichimaru took him away from me. From Soul Society! He has to face justice!"

"But you're not going to be the one to bring him down," Hitsugaya said, standing up with an air of dignity despite his small, boyish frame. "You can't be. Your division needs you more as the strong, firm backbone of their organization, not as a grief-maddened vice-captain that's going to hare off on a mad revenge quest and get herself killed."

Inwardly, he winced and cursed himself about how his words sounded, but he couldn't afford to be too nice. He and Hinamori were more alike than they appeared to be; though she was soft-spoken, warm, and kind where he was gruff, standoffish, and taciturn, they both had a driving, relentless tenacity that kept them going when others couldn't—and kept them from seeing the mistakes that they were most likely to make in the process. He had to be straight with her so that she would understand what he was saying, and understand the consequences of being careless with her own well-being when others were depending on her.

Hinamori's bottom lip was wobbling, and her eyes were slightly watery. Despite that, she was holding firm. "Then I'll become strong enough that Ichimaru can't kill me. Simple as that."

"You will become that strong, but not by trying to do to it quickly. I may be a captain myself but I've got little doubt in my mind that if Ichimaru set it up properly he could take me down. He's smart, he's strong, and most importantly he has nothing to lose."

Tears began to slide down Hinamori's face, and her Spiritual Energy began to creep up. "I know that! But...I can't let Captain Aizen's memory die like that. I can't!"

Hitsugaya swore angrily to himself, and put a firm hand on Hinamori's shoulder. She almost brushed him off, but the cool that he exuded practically stamped all of the anger out of her.

"His memory will live with you and all of the other people that loved him," Hitsugaya said, slowly speaking every word. "You will disgrace it by running off to your death without a care in the world. So rest, recover. Get stronger. Protect what Captain Aizen has left to you instead of chasing the back of a man that's still beyond you."

Hinamori's fists clenched and unclenched in odd, jerky spurts, but she eventually relented and relaxed. When she did, Hitsugaya stepped away, looking extremely tired and extremely disappointed, though it was more likely that the latter emotion was directed at himself and not Hinamori.

"I'll go for now," he said. "I want you to think about what I've said very carefully. Once your head's clear, then you can come back to me about training."

"All right," Hinamori whispered, rubbing the back of one hand with the other. "I'm sorry for yelling, Toshirou."

The smile that crept across Hitsugaya's face was small, but it was enough to put her at significant ease. "It's fine, Momo. I can't say I know exactly how you feel, but...I understand. For now, worry about getting better. I'll be back again soon."

Not trusting her voice, Hinamori nodded again, and Hitsugaya left her be. When the door closed behind him she looked at the light streaming in through the window and listened to the birdsong with an expression that couldn't be described as anything less than pure sorrow.

* * *

**2 PM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase**

Ichigo had come to expect a lot of weird things in dealing with the Soul Society and the Soul Reapers. He'd seen a giant, pointy-nosed monster in a black cloak try to treat Karakura as its personal stomping grounds. He'd dispatched a number of equally oddly-masked monsters before they could eat and consume human souls. He'd fought against dead people whose skills with swords and magic basically outclassed his by centuries.

And yet, nothing, nothing, could have prepared him for what he saw before him right now.

Right now, he was in his own body, having finished up patrol a while ago. They were a few blocks away from his house, where the Twelfth Division had dropped off a special package for Renji and Rukia. They were standing next to him, while "Renji" and "Rukia" were standing in front of him. "Renji" and "Rukia", of course, were in actuality Soul Candies possessing artificial bodies called Gigai. Just like Ichigo's Alfred, the Soul Candies could be ejected at a moment's notice so that the real Renji and Rukia could possess the Gigai, which would allow them to recover their Spiritual Energy and recover from some nasty wounds if they took them.

What was freaking Ichigo out was how...animated and sunny Rukia's Soul Candy was.

"My name's Chappy, hop. Nice to meet you, Ichigo-san, Renji-san!" Rukia's Candy said, beaming broadly as she bowed to both of them. "Please treat me well!"

Renji's Candy, in contrast, was rather cloying and indirect, smiling in a foxlike way that reminded Ichigo far too much of Gin Ichimaru. "The name's Ginnosukem, nyah," he said, scratching its butt idly. "Glad to work with ya and all. Treat me kindly, nyah?"

At least, Ichigo noted, Renji looked somewhat discomfited by his Soul Candy's personality.

"Now, Ichigo," Rukia said, moving to stand up next to Chappy. "Do you understand the plan?"

Ichigo sighed and shook his head. "Yes, I get it. But as senile as my old man is, there's no way in hell he's going to think that you and this buffoon—" he jerked a thumb at Renji, who sputtered and muttered in annoyance—"are actually related to each other. He won't be able to assume anything about you two being homeless, but it's all a stretch."

"Ichigo, I've seen her con fruit vendors out of two days' worth of food before with a puppy dog pout and a few whimpers," Renji said solemnly. "If your dad is as nuts as you say he is, he'll fall for it hook, line, and sinker."

Ichigo folded his arms and looked between his two associates with a scowl. "Won't believe it till I see it."

Rukia huffed and puffed out her cheeks. "Fine then. I'll just show you that I know what I'm doing. Chappy, everyone, come along. It's time."

* * *

And precisely ten minutes later, in the living room of his own home, Ichigo was indeed bearing witness to the cheesiest, most contrived sob story he'd ever heard.

The galling part was that it was somehow _working, _as both Isshin and Yuzu's stream of tears attested to. Karin, who was sitting with her father and sister at the dining room table, looked considerably less impressed.

Rukia and Renji's Gigai had been dressed fairly modestly; being a distinguished lady, Rukia was wearing a simple white dress and sensible sneakers, while Renji was in a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt with sturdy black boots. Despite that, Rukia's cover story had been nothing but a tale of woe straight off the TV screen—she and her brother had been tossed out on their ear by a cruel relative and been homeless for days, and Ichigo, a mutual acquaintance from school, had been the only person they thought of for help.

"So that's the situation, Kurosaki-san," Rukia whispered, bowing her head. "Please, I know it's sudden and really, really awkward, but Ichigo-san has been such a good friend to us that I couldn't possibly think of anyone more qualified to help. Please, don't turn us away in our time of need."

A few more tears slid down Isshin's face at Rukia's extreme display of humility. Ichigo and Karin nearly smashed their heads against the nearest hard surface to spare themselves the pain of watching their father's theatrics. "Oh, Rukia-chan. Any friends of Ichigo are welcome here. Stay as long as you need to!" He then turned toward Yuzu. "Rukia-chan will sleep with you two in your room. Renji-kun is going to room with Ichigo. We'll work out any other details later."

"I'll get to making lunch, you all must be hungry," Yuzu said, pushing her chair back and wiping her face. "Don't worry. In the Kurosaki household we treat our guests well!"

"You're so kind, Yuzu-chan, Kurosaki-san," Rukia replied, smiling innocently; Renji, not wanting to say anything that might ruin the moment, simply nodded and grunted, letting some of his actual chagrin slip into his expression. "I can't ever think about how to repay you."

Isshin gallantly waved one hand around. "You don't have to. So far as we're concerned, you, our honored guests, are as good as real family to us." He stood up himself and took a minute to beam broadly at the poster of Masaki Kurosaki on the far wall before nodding. "I've got some work to do in the office. Ichigo! Get Renji-kun and Rukia-chan settled in, won't you?"

"Yes, Dad," Ichigo replied.

Isshin walked off towards the clinic, humming under his breath as he did so; once he was out of earshot, Ichigo cranked up his angry glare and stared in disbelief at Rukia.

"What the hell was that? Did you paste together a bunch of soap opera scripts or something? That story was so transparent you could have used it as a window!"

"But it worked," Rukia said with a smug smile. "We're in now, and so long as we maintain our cover we should be all right." She turned to Karin and inclined her head slightly towards the younger girl. "It's good to see you again, Karin-san. I hope you've been well?"

Renji gaped at mention of the fact that Rukia already knew Karin, while the younger Kurosaki sister sighed and shrugged. "About as good as I can get considering that I know my brother is out there hunting insane human souls. Been staying clear of them myself as best as I can, though since I don't see a lot of them I figure that Ichi-nii's been keeping up with his job pretty well."

The look of confusion and alarm continued to crawl across Renji's face, but Ichigo saw the expression and responded before Renji could blow up. "Relax, pineapple-head. She knows how to keep secrets."

"But how did she even find out?" Renji asked, his tattooed eyebrows still furrowed. "For your sake I hope you didn't tell her or Soul Society's going to have your head on a platter!"

Ichigo sighed. _Oh, they will, all right. But not because of something dumb like that. _"If you want to know the answer to that question, then come on. Let's go have a chat in my room."

* * *

After clomping upstairs to Ichigo's bedroom, everyone sat on the floor, and Ichigo gave Renji the Cliffs Notes version of what had gone on during the Hollow Hunt. At the end of it all, Renji did seem a bit calmer, but continued to remain in deep thought while Ichigo and Rukia began discussing logistics.

"There's no way we can leave Chappy and that Ginnouskem thing in control of your Gigai while we're gone," Ichigo said to Rukia, shaking his head. "They strike me as the kind that wouldn't know how to actually function properly in human society—at least more so than most Soul Candies do. Though my dad is apparently stupid enough to get fooled by stupid, contrived sob stories, even he will start to notice if your IQ takes a big enough dip that you're talking like a little kid."

"And how are you so sure of that?" Rukia replied, folding her arms and frowning. "If he can overlook all the flaws in the story I fed him then I doubt he'll fail to do the same when we swap out for the Artificial Souls."

"Look, this is hard enough without me or Karin having to run interference on those stupid candies to keep them from causing some incident that all the dumb memory-eraser machines that Soul Society has won't be able to fix. Just let them out only when we're on patrol and we'll be fine."

Ichigo's mouth was set into such a hard line that Rukia had no choice but to relent. He wasn't about to compromise on it, she was inconveniencing him enough as it was, and he had a pretty decent argument.

"Fine, then. We'll leave in the morning for patrol and come back in before breakfast time." She looked towards a still-thinking Renji, and cleared her throat to get his attention. "Renji. You'll be sparring with Ichigo while I work with his Kidou, all right? Don't hold back. He needs to keep up his regimen."

"Who do you take me for, Rukia?" Renji replied, rubbing his knee with a grin. "I'll make him wish he was getting his ass beaten back at the Eleventh Division."

"Good to hear. Now what can we use as a training space...?"

The mere mention of the words "training space" reminded Ichigo that he had yet to figure out if, when, or how, he could smooth things over between his friends and his liaisons. Before he could spare serious thought for it, though, the smell of freshly cooked rice began to waft through the air. Rukia perked up immediately, as did Renji, and Ichigo stood. "Yeah, that'll be lunch. Yuzu's specialty is cooking like a maniac and still making it taste like a four-star meal."

"Then what are we waitin' for? I haven't had a good home-cooked meal in a while," Renji said, grinning.

Ichigo began to feel a bead of sweat slide down his forehead. "Well, before that...I...I have something to say, Rukia. I know of a place where we could train, but there are two catches. One is that Urahara built it. The other is that part of it is in use."

Rukia frowned as she got to her feet, turning over Ichigo's statement in her mind. Her old distrust of the shopkeeper was still strong in her, but she couldn't deny that whatever secrets he kept, he'd been acting in what appeared to be everyone's best interests."Well, technically we can still interact with Urahara; the orders we got didn't really restrict us from being near him. Still, let's not rely on him unless we have no choice." She then recalled another part of what he said, and her frown deepened. "And who precisely is using it already?"

The way his nerves were acting up made Ichigo think that he'd made a mistake, deciding to just be honest about what had happened with his friends. However, Rukia's gaze was intently focused on him, and Renji was paying attention simply by virtue of the fact that Rukia was so concentrated on him. And if they found out like he did, there would be even more trouble. This was the only way to try and do some damage control.

_Now or never, Ichigo. Take a deep breath and tell her._

"My friends are. Urahara helped them get their powers back...and I only just found out."

To Rukia's credit, she managed to stop herself from yelling or screaming once the full import of what Ichigo said came to her.

Renji did as well, but only because he had been cowed into silence by the extreme cold of Rukia's Spiritual Pressure hanging over the entire room, making it feel like everyone inside had been shoved face-first into a block of ice.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_I'm happy to say that writer's block isn't what delayed this chapter for so long. I'm sad to say that it had to do with real-life obligations that will likely make November another one-chapter month._

_I'm hoping that Ichigo isn't being too irrational near the end by deciding to just come clean with the whole thing regarding his friends to Renji and Rukia. He's demonstrated that he's capable of keeping secrets when he has to in canon Bleach, but it's pretty clear (I hope) that he's not going to do anyone any favors by doing that here._

_Alternatively I just like to kick around the drama ball a bit, he he he._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_None this chapter._

_Student Review Corner:_

_SilverStella (Ch. 21): Well, the letter, as you can see, did come into play. The reason why it doesn't blame Hitsugaya is because I needed it for this specific purpose—that is to say, giving Ichimaru a reason to hunt down and kill a fellow captain in cold blood._

_Nbons (Ch. 21): Consider Ichigo's apology as yet another way of taking responsibility for things that aren't really his fault, or at least that he's not as responsible for as he thinks he is. As for the letter, well, this chapter has answered that question pretty handily._

_Anne Camp (multiple): I do keep up with the manga via scanlations and I have watched part of the actual dubbed anime (as in a very few episodes, since reading is way faster for me). Personally, I try to follow the rule of sticking to the precedents set by the English dub, which includes Kidou spell names and general naming conventions, whenever possible because this is an English-language story (I'm flexible when it comes to terms that would sound strange when translated), and not out of any particular preference for one translation over the other. Any redundancies in the text, whether in narration or in dialogue, are usually caused by me picking up part of the story where I left off and not realizing that I already wrote what I wanted to say—when I compile the PDF version those will be fixed to the best of my ability._

_As for the inches thing...yes, that's a flub on my part. Blame it on me being an American who has a tenuous enough grasp on spatial relationships with his country's chosen system of measurement, let alone with the metric system._

_All right. The next chapter is likely going to come to you all sometime n December. I can't shake the feeling that I'm going a little too slowly as far as pacing is concerned but I think I can get a grip and get us rolling again with a little bit of thinking. At this point I'm throwing out whatever estimates I have for when the story will actually be done because of how these last few updates have turned out. I can say that all going well I have no intentions of going past 30 chapters, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go all the way TO 30 chapters. _

_I'm also thinking that while I'm going to jump into another story once this is done and wrapped, it will probably not be Second Semester. I feel like starting it right after First Semester will burn me out and completely wreck what I have going, and that is not what I want to do. Odds are high that it'll be one of the stories that I have listed under my profile (I have shuffled it around a bit, again. I do that a lot)._

_Anyway, enough of that. Enjoy this chapter. Till next class._

_~ZS  
_


	23. Lesson 23: Incider Incidents 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 23: Insider Incidents 101, or Disasters Back To Back_

* * *

**Wednesday, August 21, 12:30 PM**

**Karakura Town, Mitsumiya: Urahara Shop**

In the semi-blistering heat, amongst the sounds of a few cicadas buzzing, Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji stood in front of the Urahara Shop, with their Candy-possessed bodies standing behind them. Rukia's expression was easily the fiercest between the three of them, and Ichigo couldn't even look in her direction without getting a nasty glare that practically shot through his brain.

"Enough being pissed at him, Rukia," Renji said, sighing. "We're here to resolve this situation, aren't we? You had your time to chew him out already."

"And I still didn't do a good enough job of it!" she yelled. "I cannot believe you were so careless as to let this happen, Ichigo. Honestly!"

"You think I'd let something this stupid happen on purpose?" Ichigo snapped. "Goddamn it, Rukia, by the time I found out, they'd done the damn thing. And even then I only found out only about a day or two before I told you. What was I supposed to do?"

Rukia sighed. "You could have told us earlier. That would've been a pretty good start. But no, Renji's right. We've had this discussion already, so let's move on, get this over with." She turned towards Chappy, Ginnosukem, and Alfred. "Now stay calm and stay here. We're going in."

The Soul Candies saluted in unison, and together, the Soul Reapers strode up to the door. But before they got to the door itself, it slid open, and Urahara appeared, his face unsmiling.

"Ichigo-kun, Kuchiki-dono. It's been some time." He turned towards Renji; the redhead Reaper adjusted his goggles with a frown. "Who's your friend?"

"Lieutenant Renji Abarai. Sixth Division. Mr. Urahara, I presume?"

Urahara nodded. "You presume correctly. Now, how can I help you all today? Am I to assume that you've got something to discuss regarding our mutual friends?"

"Yes, we do," Rukia said flatly. "We very much do."

Urahara stepped back, pushing the door wide open. "Then come in. Let's speak. The day's young."

Urahara had made sure to prepare tea for them and have it set out to drink the moment they got in. With repeated assurances that it had been made specifically to refresh spiritual bodies, Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji did take a few sips as they sat around the dining room table.

"Now, straight to business," Urahara said from his position at the head of the table. "The fact of the matter is that Ichigo-kun's friends approached me for help that I made available for them. They understand, as I do, and hopefully as you do, that Ichigo-kun and the rest of the Soul Reapers cannot be everywhere at the same time. If Arisawa-san, Inoue-san, Sado-san, and Ishida-san were left solely to rely on the Reapers for safety, then they would run the risk of being seriously hurt when that help could not come. I have...heard stories to corroborate that theory."

As Ishida had grown more comfortable with the group training with him, he had also become more receptive to speaking with them. An unusually serious discussion about why Tatsuki, Chad, and Orihime were so determined to be strong for Ichigo's sake had led Ishida to reveal the source of his grudge against the Soul Reapers. Urahara himself had been personally incensed by it, as there was no conceivable reason for the delay to have happened unless someone forced it to happen—the Gotei would lapse in its duty on occasion, but never like that.

"I've also been observing their powers, and have managed to ensure that their powers are not harmful to the cycle of reincarnation, and that they can control them to walk amongst the spiritually blind without causing any problems."

"However, you broke the conditions that were placed on your continued cooperation with Soul Society," Renji said sternly, taking up the role of the senior officer. "This goes far beyond simply supporting the forces stationed in Karakura Town, this is outright breaking an official ruling of Soul Society. Your intentions were good but pointless in the end—the Twelfth Division is going to put the kids back under lockdown and will take steps to ensure that you will not be able to help them again."

"I expected as much," Urahara said evenly. "But if that's what happens, then it happens. More importantly, though, Soul Society will be put at a very permanent loss if they attempt to capture me."

"Is that a threat, Urahara-san?" Rukia asked, and the room became colder as her Spiritual Energy began to leak out in a deliberate warning.

Urahara noted the growing sensation with a soft smile. _Much more concentrated than it was before, and even more controlled than when I felt it before during the Hunt. She's become more skilled._

"You misunderstand me. I meant simply that I have something that would be, at least at this time, extremely useful for you. It's related to the entire issue of Captain Aizen's untimely death."

Renji froze, and Rukia pulled back her Spiritual Energy; Urahara's smile grew wider.

_Got 'em._

"You'd better not be bluffing, Urahara," Ichigo said, his voice grim and low. "You'd really better not be."

Urahara began to fan himself calmly, partially hiding his expression behind the moment of the paper. "Not at all. In fact, I'm fairly certain that if I could speak to the Captain-General himself he'd be rather interested in what I have to say."

Renji's expression had recovered, but now his memory was pulling him back to his debriefing prior to being stationed in Karakura.

* * *

_Yamamoto's expression was, as it always was, exceedingly stern, while Captain Kuchiki's was placid and serene. Despite himself, Renji could feel parts of his body quaking in the kind of absolute terror that one felt when facing their deaths. He had been expecting a debriefing meeting prior to leaving Soul Society, but he hadn't been expecting the Captain-General himself to show up._

_**But what could he want?** Renji wondered._

"_Lieutenant Abarai, you have two purposes on this trip," Yamamoto said, his voice echoing slightly around the walls of the Sixth Division captain's office. "The first is the obvious one, to assist Officers Kurosaki and Kuchiki in their duties. The second is to observe them, and Kurosaki's friends, as well as Kisuke Urahara should you find the opportunity."_

_Renji nodded, then forced his shaking knees to stay still while he bowed his head. "Pardon my ignorance, sir, but who is Kisuke Urahara?"_

"_He is the former captain of the Twelfth Division. He was exiled for Hollowfying multiple captains and their lieutenants just around 100 years ago. Recently he \re-emerged in Karakura Town, and assisted Officers Kurosaki and Kuchiki in dealing with the menace of the Hollow swarm that gathered there." The Captain-General's ancient cane shifted slightly on the ground. "Whatever new information you glean from these observations are to be reported to me directly and no one else. Am I understood?"_

_Renji saluted. "Yes, sir!"_

* * *

"...I see," Renji said aloud, breaking the silence that had fallen over the meeting. "That won't do very much to help you out of your current predicament unless you're willing to give that information right here and now."

"I am more than fine with doing that," Urahara said. "In fact, I would prefer to get it over with as soon as possible. The only problem is that I wouldn't be believed if I did tell you."

"Oh, and why's that?" Renji asked, arms folded. "Most certainly not because you're trying to save your own skin, right?"

"Well, for starters, I'm an exile. That tends to ruin one's credibility with Soul Society. On top of that, nothing I say can be proven true, not yet. Suffice it to say that the one who set all of this up has far too much skill at planning to let one humble, perverted shopkeeper destroy his entire gambit with one confession." Urahara's fan stopped moving, and his face had no smile on it, not anymore.

"Tell Captain-General Yamamoto that if he wants to know what I know about Captain Aizen's death, he will have to ensure that I will be left alone by Soul Society after I give my testimony. If he wants something to sweeten the deal, you can give him this free tidbit—the enemy is operating within Hueco Mundo."

The name of the Hollows' world flipped a switch in Ichigo's memory, but he, like Rukia and Renji, deliberately showed no reaction to it. Renji himself stood up, looking down on the group with a stony frown.

"If you'll excuse me for a moment."

With that, he left for the front of the store, and Rukia quickly got up to follow him. Ichigo began to get up as well, but stopped when he saw that Urahara had seemingly deflated once the other two were out of sight. He was still serious, but he looked for a moment like the weight of the world was on his back.

"What's your deal?" Ichigo asked, softening his scowl a bit.

Urahara smiled tiredly and shook his head as he looked across the table. "Just wishing things had been different. Wishing that I didn't have to play this game of politics, withholding information and trying to come out unhurt. I'm too old for this, Ichigo-kun. All I really want to do now is to live quietly and raise my three rambunctious kids with my good friends, but I got forced into this corner by that selfish bastard and the odds are looking high that I won't be able to get away."

Ichigo snorted, but inwardly felt a stab of guilt, again regretting his decision to be honest with Rukia and Renji. Urahara saw the flash of regret run across Ichigo's face and tapped his fan against the table. "No, no, Ichigo-kun. You're not allowed to get all mopey on me. _Don't feel as if you have to lie on my behalf anymore, or anything of the sort. I'm more than capable of taking care of things myself. _I said that to you on the day on the day that Hinamori-san gave me my warning, don't you remember? You were told to watch over your friends and Ishida-kun, and once you found out what I did you did your duty and reported it as soon as you could." He smiled broadly. "You've become more responsible than some people twice your age. If you keep going on like this, it'll be a tough road but you'll be able to say that you live honestly."

"Flattery won't get you anywhere," Ichigo replied dully. "Even if you say that, this is still my fault. I wanted to hope that Renji and Rukia would see it the way I eventually did, but they're not friends with Inoue, Chad, and Tatsuki. I...I guess I was just thinking wishfully."

Urahara drank the last of his tea, and then set the cup down, letting off a quiet sigh of contentment. "It's better like this anyway. Your intentions were good—" _not like mine, long ago_, he thought to himself—"and, unlike me, you put them to a purpose that was unquestionably more straightforward." He sat up a bit straighter, and the defeated aura hanging around him seemed to vanish as his eyes locked onto Ichigo's beneath the shade of his hat. "But I'm not going to whine and cry about my own mistakes. They're in the past. What we have to deal with now is the present."

At that moment, Renji and Rukia came back inside, but didn't sit down. Their faces were neutral enough for Ichigo to know that something was up, but he said nothing.

"The Captain-General has been informed," Renji said, "and will arrive in a day's time to personally receive whatever information you have to give him. He will leave your allies alone if you surrender peacefully to him at the time that you give your deposition. If not, I can promise nothing to you."

"What about my friends?" Ichigo asked, trying to ignore the dread creeping along his skin.

Rukia folded her arms as she answered. "Captain and Lieutenant Kurotsuchi will also be present on that day to verify the claims that Urahara has made. A stronger suppressant will be applied to your friends, which may or may not be removable without...surgical intervention, based on the results of the tests." Her face twisted slightly at mention of "surgical intervention", and Ichigo's heart nearly fell into his stomach.

Urahara listened to all of this without the slightest speck of fear on his face. Then, he stood, straightening to his full height. "If that's what it takes, then I'll do it. Let Yamamoto know that I'll be ready to talk and leave in peace tomorrow."

Ichigo stood up as well, but the expression on his face was pure shock, plain and simple. "You..."

"I'm done running," Urahara said. "Even if it means I'm going to end up losing, I'm more concerned about bringing the truth out."

"Then our business here is done," Renji said. "Ichigo! Get your ass in gear! Let's go!"

Slowly, Ichigo looked over to a still-stolid Urahara, then to impatient Renji, before nodding and walking over to his fellow Reapers. As he did so, Renji stepped down into the shop and made his way through the front door; Rukia fell into step behind him, putting Ichigo at the back of the line.

Before he stepped down, Ichigo looked over his shoulder at Urahara.

"For what it's worth...Good luck.. And I'm sorry."

With that, he left, and Urahara watched them go. At length, he said aloud, "Come on out, Yoru-chan."

Yoruichi, disguised in her cat form, came out from the door to the bedrooms, which was behind him and thus opposite of the door that led out to the shop; in a large plume of smoke, the cat's form was gone, and she emerged from the cloud in her human form, naked as the day she was born. She took a moment to crouch and pull out a robe from beneath the dining room table, then wrapped it around herself.

"Kisuke. Are you sure about this?" she said lowly. "This is serious, now. If you resist them when they try to take you, Yamamoto will end you and all of us in the bargain. And if you're locked up in the Maggot's Nest then there's nothing you'll be able to do. Soifon will probably have a lot of fun beating you within an inch of your life, to start with. And on top of that there is literally nothing you can say that will make them think that a dead man was the one responsible for setting up his own death."

Urahara gently wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. "I know, Yoru-chan. I know, I know, I know. But I'm ready." His face hardened. "Even if they don't believe me, I'll finally get to say it directly. I'll be able to let out all of these bitter feelings that I've held onto, and if I can just do that then everything else will come together." He shook his head and chuckled bitterly. "I don't like to fight from the front lines, but I have no choice."

Yoruichi let her own hand work around Urahara's hip, and she returned his affection with a gentle squeeze of her own.

"All right, then."

* * *

As Ichigo, Renji, and Rukia made their way back to Minamikawase on foot, having re-entered their bodies and stored the Soul Candies, Ichigo finally asked the question that had been on his mind for a while.

"You all are still hiding something. What else did he tell you?"

For the briefest moment, Renji looked down to Rukia, while she looked up towards him; Rukia then turned to Ichigo, but Renji wound up answering before she could. "The Captain-General was intending to take Urahara whether he wanted to come or not. It's a good thing he agreed or tomorrow would've been ugly."

Ichigo grit his teeth as quietly as he could, and there was just enough quiet in the summer air to hear the popping of his knuckles. "I see."'

Renji sighed, shaking his head as he jammed his hands further into his pockets. "Look, man, I just pass along the orders. I don't necessarily agree with this either. And at least Urahara is the only one he wants. Your friends are going to be all right, even if they're just sealed again."

"For a given value of 'all right', anyway," Ichigo said under his breath. "Captain Kurotsuchi is not the kind of man I'd leave my worst enemy to, let alone my friends."

"I'm positive Captain Unohana will be there to keep him from getting too enthusiastic," Rukia said, smoothing out a crease in her dress. "She's very good at that."

Ichigo could still remember when the smiling Captain of the Fourth had gotten him to go onto, and stay on, bed rest, with little more than a few words and one of her brightest smiles.

The memory was absolutely terrifying, but at length, Ichigo was able to nod.

"Yes. She is."

* * *

**Thursday, August 22, 10 AM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Fifth Division Barracks**

Hinamori was privately grateful that the Second Division had sealed up Captain's Aizen's office and his room after they'd finished investigating. Her office was only just down the hall from his, and their rooms were fairly close to each other; with both of them actually sealed off, she could far more easily resist the temptation to go inside and waste several hours of the day bawling her eyes out.

Without Captain Aizen, she had to focus on doing all of the paperwork he did on top of her own. Kirie Hanajima, the third seat, was handling Hinamori's division-wide responsibilities for now, but it wasn't the same as having a captain and a lieutenant active at the same time, like it was supposed to be.

As she put aside an approved requisition form, Hinamori sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead. It felt warmer than usual and she felt much less alert than she normally was; she knew that part of it was just the blues, but at the same time, it was wholly possible that her relentless working schedule since her return to the division two days ago had run her down enough to get her sick.

She hoped that wasn't the case, because going back to the Fourth after barely being discharged for 48 hours would annoy Unohana quite a bit. And when Unohana got annoyed things went very, very _wrong._

It was then, while trying to focus on her work again, that Hinamori sensed something that sent a roiling wave of nausea and hatred through her belly.

Just like on that day, a snakelike Spiritual Energy was waiting outside of the gates of the Fifth.

Hinamori knew who it was almost instantly, and at her side she could have sworn that her zanpakutou was already howling for Ichimaru's blood on her blade and his head on a pike.

"I know, Tobiume," Hinamori whispered, standing up. "He's ours this time."

The promise she made to Hitsugaya stilled her, for a moment, but she pushed it aside. There were just some things that couldn't be put aside that easily, not when the right opportunity was there and available.

She stood and slipped out of her office, taking the long way around through the hallways to get to the front; as she made her way there, she heard a cry or two of alarm from outside, and quickened her pace. There were standing orders to not engage Ichimaru if one was a third seat or lower, but he might have cut down a few of the officers that saw him just because he could.

That thought alone had Hinamori seeing _red._

But when she got out there, raced down the steps and looked toward the gate, there were no injured, just a crowd of excited, scared Reapers, murmuring and talking amongst themselves about Ichimaru. Or at least that's what Hinamori assumed, her ears were mostly non-functioning due to her heightened nerves.

Hinamori's arrival drew everyone's attention; her face was flushed, her breaths heavy, and her expression was so uncharacteristically agitated that no one could bring themselves to speak carelessly.

"Tell me where he is," she said.

"I think he came from the east," said one of the Reapers. "The moment I saw him, he ran off again, turned southwest."

Hinamori wordlessly cast her senses outward, searching for the cold, snakelike aura; the moment she got a fix on it, she turned towards where Ichimaru's energy was coming from and burst into Flash Steps. The world rushed by her in a blur of blue sky and white walls, only snapping back to normal when she alighted on a rooftop here or there to catch her breath and recover herself before continuing.

As she raced after Ichimaru, though, Hinamori could immediately tell that he was beginning to move back towards the northeast, at a rather unhurried pace. Based on his angle of approach, she could tell that he was headed straight for Soukyoku Hill—but to what end, she didn't know.

Quickly, she adjusted her course to cut him off, veering sharply to the north. As she did so, she drew her Soul Phone from her robe and punched in the emergency service code. It would alert any Reapers in the area to her presence and give them the ability to track her phone with theirs.

_I should have activated it earlier,_ she thought to herself, leaping from the roof and moving forward. _But...I have to face him. I have to understand why he did this._

To her left and to her right, and positioned behind her, she felt two other energies moving in her direction, much quicker than she could herself. She recognized the one coming from the southeast as Rangiku Matsumoto, but not the other. She could tell that it was definitely captain-class, though, and she allowed herself an inward moment of relief at the backup she would have once she got to the stairs that led up Soukyoku Hill.

* * *

**10:10 AM**

**Seireitei: Near Soukyoku Hill and the Tower of Penance**

Even at her reduced pace, Hinamori beat Ichimaru to the tall white staircase that led up to Soukyoku Hill by a matter of a few minutes. In fact, as she alighted on the ground in front of it and turned towards where Ichimaru was coming from, the air buzzed with the sound of Flash Steps. Rangiku and Captain Tousen appeared in front of her, landing lightly on the ground.

"He's almost here, Lieutenant," Tousen said, turning his head behind him as if he could see Ichimaru approaching. "Quickly. We must prepare ourselves."

Rangiku nodded, looking back towards where Ichimaru was coming from with a forwn on her face. "Of course, Captain."

"Captain Tousen, Matsumoto-san," Hinamori said, loudly enough to get their attention. "Did you two get my emergency page message?"

Tousen and Rangiku blinked almost simultaneously as they turned to look at Hinamori, but Rangiku spoke first. "Hinamori-chan...? What are you doing here?"

"Ichimaru came to the Fifth Division. I knew he was baiting me out, but I had to chase him, I was the only one there that could handle him. What about you?"

Rangiku frowned, folding her arms. "He came to my division, as well. I came to my office and he was in there, doing something with my stuff. He took off when I came inside, and I started following him afterward. He made a stop at or near the Ninth before he started heading off towards you, and that's when Captain Tousen saw him and we started to chase him." The strawberry-blonde's eyes sharpened slightly as she looked at Hinamori. "Don't you dare think of asking us to stand aside so you can fight on your own. I know he did you wrong, but this is more important than your grudge."

Hinamori returned Rangiku's stare without fear. "I know that. I'm perfectly capable of separating my personal intentions from my duty, Lieutenant Matsumoto, and I'm insulted that you would imply otherwise."

"Enough, the both of you," Tousen said. "There's no time for this. We must at least hold Ichimaru here if we cannot defeat him, at least until the emergency pager that we received goes out to any others nearby aside from us."

Rangiku and Hinamori locked eyes for a second more before turning towards Ichimaru's approaching signature once more and drawing their zanpakutou. In this, at least, they would stand together and put aside the quarrel.

Ichimaru appeared in front of them with little fanfare, only the swishing of Flash Steps. He still wore his captain's jacket, and was grinning irrepressibly, though when he saw Rangiku's frowning face staring back at him, it seemed to shrink a bit.

"Well well, what've we got here? Ran, Tousen, Hinamori. You really went to all this trouble just to head off little old me? Really, now, I'm flattered."

Hinamori's Spiritual Energy pulsed, sending out a short, pinkish burst of Pressure that was full of palpable hatred. "Shut up, Ichimaru. You're outnumbered and outgunned. If you surrender, I won't cut out your black heart and burn it."

Ichimaru's grin became even wider, and he drew Shinsou from its place at his side. "Oh, really. Well if you'd like to try..."

At once, Hinamori, Rangiku, and Tousen readied their blades, and the first two roughly pushed in the Spiritual Energy needed to activate their Shikai.

"Snap, Tobiume."

"Growl, Haineko!"

Hinamori's Tobiume immediately responded by straightening out and growing two forked prongs from its length. Rangiku's blade dissolved into a cloud of ashes as she thrust it in Ichimaru's direction, and the cloud flew straight at the grinning traitor.

In response, he simply thrust a hand forward and said, "Hadou 33: Red Flame Cannon."

The Spiritual Pressure gathered in his arm, solidified into the red explosive sphere, and fired in the space of mere seconds, smashing into the cloud of ash and blanketing the area in smoke. Under that cover, he circled around them, making a break for the steps, but was stopped when a hail of swords burst out of the smoke; he barely had enough time to stop and roll to the side as they flew into the space where he'd been standing, nearly piercing his back like a dartboard.

Tousen, sword drawn, stepped out of the clearing smoke cloud; though his eyes, as always, were hidden behind his goggles, the way his brow furrowed just above the top of his eyewear told Ichimaru all he needed to know about how Tousen was feeling.

"Smash his limbs, Suzumushi. Second movement, Benihikou."

Tousen swung his sword, and the ring on the tip of the teadrop-shaped pommel of the blade jangled as he cut the air. As it moved, the blade left a trail in the air, and once it stopped moving, the trail became another set of blades like the ones that had nearly hit Ichimaru.

"Shoot 'em dead, Shinsou," Ichimaru said, thrusting the shorter blade forward; as it extended in a flash of white light, it punched a hole in the advance of the blades. He then swung it to the left and the right, knocking the rest of them away, before retracting it once more and rushing in through the space he'd made in Tousen's Benihikou.

Tousen sighed, and shook his head. "Fool."

It was then that ash burst forward, avoiding Tousen while surging straight at Ichimaru. Trapped in the motion of moving forward, Ichimaru could do nothing as the ash cloud washed over him and slashed him up ferociously.

As soon as possible, Ichimaru leaped upward and away, hissing in discomfort as the cuts running up and down his limbs began to burn. However, the sound of sandals rasping on the ground soon drew his attention downward, and Ichimaru managed to look down just in time to see Hinamori swing Tobiume and unleash a fireball in his direction.

Ichimaru grunted and swung through the fireball with one stroke, but was unpleasantly surprised when a yellow strand of Kidou shot out from behind the projectile and wrapped itself around his arms before he could move. Down below, Hinamori grinned, clutching the Crawling Rope in her left hand and Tobiume in her right, before she pointed her zanpakutou at Ichimaru's chest.

"Bakudou 61, Six Rod-Light Restraint!"

The light of the Crawling Rope magnified in intensity briefly, before the six pillars of light formed from the restraints and shot through Ichimaru's torso. With something like an undignified squawk, the traitorous Captain fell to the ground in a heap, giving Hinamori ample time to walk up to him and point Tobiume right at his throat, with Rangiku in step right behind her.

"You're done," Hinamori said coldly. "Now, that threat I made? I'll carry through if you do so much as blink."

"Hey, hey, you've got me, already," Ichimaru said, and again his smile began to fade. He slightly moved his head to the right, and looked at Rangiku even though Tobiume came closer to his neck.

"There was a reason I stopped by your place, first, Ran." His voice was a whisper, barely reaching her ears. He opened his eyes a little wider, revealing their sharp blue color, and for a moment the frown on his face seemed to be sad, and not just disgruntled. "You ought to head back there. See what I left for you."

"What are you talking about, Gin?" Rangiku asked, brow furrowed.

Then, something jangled behind Hinamori and Rangiku, and before they'd even thought to turn halfway, a loud, painful noise struck them _(their ears their heads their everything)_ and they collapsed, limp and boneless, on the ground.

The spell binding Ichimaru dissipated instantly, and the fox-faced captain, eyes nearly shut once more, looked over to Tousen, who continued to stand where he stood.

"Sorta blew your cover there, friend," Ichimaru said casually. "Damned shame."

"I had no choice," Tousen replied, scowling briefly. "I had no pretense to put Lieutenant Matsumoto off of my trail, and because of how quickly you were moving, I had no time to think of one. Why did you even stop at the Tenth Division? Did you want to get caught?"

Ichimaru stood and stretched. "Wasn't gonna get caught. I was watching the place for a while, memorized the patterns of who was coming and going. I just wanted her to have something to remember me by, is all."

"Foolish sentiment," said Tousen, looking down in the general direction of the unconscious women. "Come. The time of extraction is in five minutes. We need to be on Soukyoku Hill by then."

With that, the blind captain strode forward, stepping over Hinamori and Rangiku as if they were dog droppings he wanted to avoid. Ichimaru brushed the dirt from his sleeves and looked back down at Rangiku, his eyes fully open once more.

"Ran. Don't forget. You've gotta go back for what I left for you in your place. It's all I could leave for you. It's the only thing I could do for all of ya."

And, with that, he left.

* * *

**Karakura Town, Mitsumiya: Urahara Shop**

While Ichimaru and Tousen made their way to escape, Ichigo, Rukia and Renji were playing party to a completely different confrontation. When Yamamoto, Kurotsuchi, and Nemu had arrived just before ten o'clock, they'd walked the to the Urahara Shop, as was their duty being the Reapers on patrol in Karakura. By 10:10 AM, Renji and Rukia were sitting down in Urahara's sitting room with Urahara and Yamamoto while the Kurotsuchis took aside Tatsuki and the others. Ichigo had gotten permission to attend to his friends (if only to ensure that Kurotsuchi didn't go too far). Though the old man was as placid-looking as ever as he sat directly across from Urahara, the air was crackling with an unspoken tension. Rukia and Renji were all sitting on the side of the table to Urahara's left, putting their backs to the door that led outside.

"You are aware, Urahara, that I only allowed you this opportunity because you stated that you were coming peacefully," the Captain-General said. "Speak quickly; your cell in the Maggot's Nest is waiting for you."

"Of course," Urahara replied, adjusting his hat. "Then, Captain-General, I'll get to the point. I've heard news of Captain Aizen's death, and I'm fairly certain that whatever he was investigating has something to do with me. There's certain information I'm willing to divulge if you are still willing to honor your part of the agreement."

"You can give it later. Now is no time for these games."

Beneath the brim of his hat, Urahara's eyes grew hard; Renji and Rukia, having just shifted their eyes from Yamamoto to Urahara, saw the change, and inwardly braced themselves for what was coming next. "I'm not going anywhere if you don't let me speak. This is important, Captain-General. Very important. This will be the only warning you get before Ichimaru's employer decides to drop an army on the Seireitei and Soul Society. An army of Arrancar."

The Captain-General's eyes opened a fraction before the temperature began to rise in the room. On top of the fridge, Yoruichi, curled up in a black ball, stretched out slightly and cast a nasty, one-eyed glare at the source of the disturbance, but ultimately curled back up, mostly to divert attention from herself.

"How did you know about Ichimaru? And what's all this about Arrancar? Don't play games with me, Kisuke Urahara!"

Urahara grinned, and kept on talking."I have my ways of knowing things. But, more seriously, Ichimaru's crossed my path before, for the same reason that he crossed yours. To further an agenda. In my case? It was helping me get framed for something I didn't do. In yours? I don't know. But I do know that the man who's got Ichimaru in his pockets likes to play shell games. Pin your attention on one thing, on one set of circumstances, and he'll use that time to slip all sorts of little tricks past you."

The Captain-General stood. An ominous groaning came from the hand that clutched his gnarled staff. Urahara, unafraid, stood up as well, and the rage Yamamoto was exuding was countered by Urahara's unbending confidence.

"You will come with me now or the deal is off. I know that Shihouin and Tsubakishi are not far from this place. They left Soul Society with you and I doubt they parted from your company. Persist in your foolish behaviors and come with me, _now._ Or I will take them and you."

"Their base of operations is in Hueco Mundo," Urahara said, going on as if the old man hadn't spoken. "Their goal is to distort the barrier between Hollow and Soul Reaper, but they're not going to stop there. If they want to get what they want, they need me, they need my research, they need my Hougyoku. There's no way in hell I intend to help. But if you lock me up, you won't be able to stop Ichimaru's boss. He'll just play you like a fiddle."

"Enough of this!" Yamamoto barked. "Abarai! Kuchiki! Restrain him!"

Rukia's heart was so far up in her throat that she couldn't even blink in confusion. Renji was the one that responded to the order, flicking his hand to produce a simple Crawling Rope that snared and bound Urahara's arms to his body.

_Well at least that worked properly, _Renji thought to himself, keeping a smug smile off of his face. Kidou had always been his weakest skill, so managing to avoid botching the simplest spells was his primary method of measuring his progress.

Yoruichi uncurled herself and began to hiss, but a look from Urahara held her still.

"This entire time, Ichimaru and his ilk have been playing you all for fools," Urahara said. "This entire time, you've had three traitors right under your noses, one of whom has already gotten out while the getting was good. One of the other two was nothing but bait for the first one to get away, and I don't know if or when the third will be moving, but if he does, you'll be crippled, divested of another captain's strength."

Yamamoto simply glanced at Renji, and jerked his head towards the door; understanding the message, the Lieutenant stood up and reflexively pulled on the Crawling Rope slightly. Urahara stumbled a bit, but didn't trip; he soon stood back up to his full height, putting him just above Renji thanks to the extra height from his sandals, and kept speaking.

"Ichimaru's gang possesses their own Hougyoku, that I don't doubt. Based on the nature of the mysterious disappearances in the Rukongai over a century ago, Ichimaru's leader had his own manufactured and was already taking souls to get it completed. The Captains and Lieutenants that were Hollowified is also proof that he had one; mine has been inactive ever since I realized its power and sealed it away. But that man used me, used my research, to get his own Hougyoku, and to get me to take the fall. In the end, he did us all a grievous wrong, and had the nerve to stay there in plain sight to keep on perpetrating his plans."

Yamamoto shook his head and walked toward the door. As he stepped down into the main shop, he said, "Abarai, lead him out. We've indulged his ranting long enough."

As Renji walked behind his leader, Urahara followed, giving a final, forlorn smile to a still-agitated Yoruichi. Rukia flanked him at the rear, as procedure dictated, and he took that moment to say one more thing.

"That man, Sousuke Aizen. His subordinates, Kaname Tousen and Gin Ichimaru. They won't stop until he gets what he wants. All you're doing by arresting me is removing one more obstacle to his plans."

Though Yamamoto was almost out of the shop when Urahara said that, the shopkeeper's voice was loud enough to carry through the entire building. Slowly, the Captain-General turned to look at Urahara, who was now stepping down into the shop's main floor, then at Renji and Rukia, who were doing their level best to keep their confusion at Urahara''s words to themselves.

"A dead man, much less a dead man that gave decades of service to the Gotei 13, can perpetrate nothing. Still your insolent tongue this instant."

"You don't know if they're dead until you find the body," Urahara said. "And I'm betting you didn't. I know him. He wouldn't have left behind anything that could be eventually been uncovered as a ruse—that includes a fake corpse. Ichimaru's attack on him was planned. They were colluding. He's tricking you."

_How did he even find out about all of this? _Rukia thought to herself, face paling as the Captain-General's fire and ire began to rise once again. _Ichigo didn't know the details of the case down to this level, and neither did I. Who would have told him? And why?_

Something warm and furry brushed past her leg momentarily, and when she looked down, Yoruichi had passed her by and gone to press up against Urahara. Though Urahara felt an immense swelling of pride in his friend-lover's show of devotion to him, he worried that she would do something rash and undo all of the work he'd put into making Yamamoto attempt to second-guess himself.

Yamamoto only held eye contact with Urahara for a moment more, before turning away again and leaving the shop. Renji and Rukia quickly followed, ushering Urahara away while Yoruichi followed closely behind.

* * *

Outside, the last of the tests that Kurotsuchi and Nemu had for Ichigo's friends were coming to a conclusion. When Yamamoto emerged from the shop, Tatsuki and Nemu were in the middle of an actual combat evaluation; the Lieutenant's speed and skill in Hakuda were well-established, and Tatsuki, well-dressed for the occasion in sturdy sneakers, brown shorts, and a white shirt, was only barely holding her own. On the sidlelines, Orihime was healing Chad's wounds, while Ichigo was discussing something with Ishida; the Quincy's face, already sharp and stoic at the best of times, was even more intense as he stared hatefully at Kurotsuchi, who was holding up some sort of device above Orihime's head as she healed Chad.

"Kurotsuchi! Report!"

The Captain-General's yell startled everyone for a few moments, stopping even Nemu and Tatsuki's spar, but Kurotsuchi was the first to recover, turning to Yamamoto with only the mildest irritation scrawled across his painted face. "It would seem that these children have developed rather interestingly. Though I can't entirely confirm most of my findings without much more invasive procedures, all of their powers are composed in such a way that they cannot disturb the cycle of regeneration—the way their resonance is set up, they'll never be able to produce an attack that would match synchronizations with a soul."

He gave a brief glance over to Ishida, and was unsurprised when the Quincy returned it with such venom that it could have poisoned a lesser man were it possible. "The Quincy is an especially interesting case. He somehow managed to modify the very nature of the Quincy techniques so that he can't produce arrows that will resonate with—and destroy—the target soul. It's weakened him somewhat, but I've got no way of testing how capable he is compared to the other samples."

"'Samples', you call them," Ishida said, his voice grating and full of rage. "You putrid bastard, how dare you! You cut open my people, my kind, just to satisfy your scientific curiosity! Including..."

"The giant's powers are interesting, too," Kurotsuchi continued, waving off Ishida's enraged diatribe and pointing to where Orihime was healing Chad. "His powers are somewhat similar to a Hollow's, but I've little doubt that he'll retain his human mind even if his power grows stronger."

Yamamoto allowed one of his eyebrows to raise a fraction, but withheld the comments that came to his mind first.

"I've got the formula to adjust the Suppression Bands ready. I just need to synthesize it in my lab and once I administer it, their powers will be sealed again—"

The ringing of a Soul Phone cut him off, and all the Reapers present bar Nemu and Yamamoto stopped to check themselves. As it turned out the culprit was Kurotsuchi, who pulled his Phone out of his robe's breast pocket.

"What is it?" he said, his face twisting into an even uglier version of his usual frown. "I'm in the middle of—did you say a distortion? Where? ...Ichimaru AND Tousen? WHEN WAS THIS?"

Yamamoto felt his blood run cold, and behind the Captain-General, Urahara sighed.

"How did no one catch wind of this beforehand? You just said that the network registered an emergency page three minutes before the distortion opened! That's plenty of time for a team to intercept!" He went silent for a bit as the Reaper on the other end continued to talk, then snarled in annoyance. "It took how long? HOW LONG? I will not stand for this inefficiency! Track that Garganta and put out a missive before I come back or I'll have you on operating table 9!"

With that, he hung up, and his pointed hat bobbed as he turned to face the Captain-General again.

"That blasted Ichimaru showed up again. Based on tracking records of the soul phones, the Fifth and the Tenth's lieutenants were at the bottom of Soukyoku Hill with Tousen. The Fifth's phone let off an emergency page but no one was in range, so it took a few minutes for a team to come investigate. By the time they did, a Garganta had been opened on Soukyoku Hill—and both Ichimaru and Tousen were gone. Completely. The lieutenants were out cold on the ground."

Urahara sighed and shook his head. "I told you, didn't I?"

"This proves nothing!" Yamamoto said, refusing to dignify Urahara with a glare now. "Nothing, do you hear me?"

"I know."

The hard silence was broken by the ringing of another phone. This time, Yamamoto muttered something incomprehensible before pulling his out and answering it.

"What is it?"

"_Sir, we have a team investigating Soukyoku Hill, and...the Central 46 Chambers, they've been destroyed,"_ said the Reaper on the other line. Yamamoto's eyes shot open, and a cold, cold feeling shot down his spine._ "We investigated further, and...the 46, they're dead. They've been dead for...for who knows how long. At least two weeks, maybe longer. The Fourth is preparing a set of autopsies."_

"Withhold your report until later," the Captain-General said, deliberately controlling his voice with every last inch of his self-possession. "I have matters to attend to still in Karakura, but send the Hell Butterflies to this location immediately. Thank you for your report."

With that, he hung up, and after a few more moments of silence, he said, "Abarai, release Urahara."

"Y-Yes sir," Renji said, the puzzlement in his voice and not his face. The Crawling Rope faded away, and Urahara rolled his shoulders a few times, as if he'd been bound up for far more than a few minutes.

_What a waste, _Yamamoto thought to himself. _All of this time wasted on false orders. And if this damnable fool Urahara was right about Tousen and Ichimaru, then what?_

"There is an emergency I have to attend to and it seems that your case was a part of it," the Captain-General said aloud. "For the time being, I have to let you go, Urahara. But make no mistake. Do one thing wrong, just one, and you will pay for it."

"I'll have to return here to take care of the brats," Kurotsuchi said, clearing his throat. "Is that acceptable?"

Yamamoto refused to even turn towards Kurotsuchi. "Once I give you permission, yes. In the meantime, Kurosaki, Abarai, and Kuchiki will monitor both them and Urahara. Kurosaki!"

Ichigo managed to make his gulp quiet. "Yes, sir?"

"Report any and all changes to the situation in Karakura to me immediately. Failure to do so will result in disciplinary action!"

"Of course, sir."

Satisfied with the answer, Yamamoto began to stride away from the Urahara Shop. "Kurotsuchi! We're leaving!"

After muttering something about unfinished experiments, Kurotsuchi followed his commander, and Nemu came behind them. Once they were out of earshot, the tense silence they left behind was broken by Orihime's sigh of relief.

"Stand up now, Sado-kun."

With a groan, Chad did so as the Souten Kisshun disappeared. He rubbed his head and stretched a few times, then summoned his armor and examined it. Once he was satisfied, he let his arm return to normal.

"Thank you, Inoue."

Orihime smiled and nodded. "My pleasure."

It was then that Tatsuki walked over to Orihime and pointed at the black eye that Nemu had given her right before they'd stopped sparring, as well as the network of bruises beaten into her body.

Orihime sighed, despite herself, and smoothed down the wrinkles in her red skirt. "All right, Tatsuki-chan. Let's fix you next."

"Urahara, you are a lucky, lucky bastard, you know that?" Ichigo said, rubbing his face. "Though I hate to think what was so bad about whatever happened back in Soul Society that old man Yama would leave you here when he was hell-bent on taking you."

"The only people with the authority to make him come after me would be the Central 46, and only their order would make him stop," Urahara muttered. "They don't rescind their orders so quickly, though, which makes me wonder myself."

"Well, don't expect for us to keep you informed about that," Renji said, his voice an irritated growl. "Considering how you know so damn much anyway, you don't need us to tell you anything."

Urahara chose to respond with a sly grin and a nod, then rubbed his chin. "That's entirely correct~"

Ishida's dark scowl grew larger for a moment before he abruptly started to walk off. "I've got stuff to do," he said to no one in particular. "I'll see all of you later."

Surprised at the outburst of emotion, Urahara stared at Ishida's back with a raised eyebrow. "What's the matter with him?"

Ichigo ruffled his hair with a sigh, and closed his eyes, trying to enjoy the feeling of the sun on his skin as best he could.

"You don't want to know," he said, remembering just what Kurotsuchi had told Ishida and feeling disgusted beyond belief. "You really don't."

* * *

**END OF CLASS **

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Merry Christmas. Writer's block is a mean bastard, I tell you what, but I finally broke through._

_At this point we've come to one of the heavier chapters, and we're ready to start resolving some more of the bigger questions. Ichigo's friends didn't get much screen time this chapter since I was running close to my allotted length limit, but the next one will hopefully make up for that, since the matter of "Ishida knows who was responsible for getting his grandfather killed" is now totally a thing that happened._

_Hopefully any questions about Aizen's innocence or lack thereof have been answered now. Or maybe not yet. You'll just have to wait and see._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_None this chapter._

_Student Review Corner:_

_Pharaoh-90, EvilFuzzy9 (different chapters): You are correct, sirs._

_For those that are asking about Hollow Ichigo, I cannot confirm or deny one way or the other. It will probably serve you all well to not ask any more, because all I can do is keep telling you "cannot confirm or deny". It's part of the whole package of being a writer—keep 'em guessing and all._

_I can now say that within three chapters, First Semester is likely to be over. This chapter has answered at least one of the biggest questions and maybe more, so I'm comfortable with moving to the conclusion. I feel bad that this took so long, and I know lots of talking happened and not as much fighting once the "Soul Society" arc got started, but Second Semester will be a definite remedy to that if I can go through with it._

_Again, Merry Christmas. I'll see you all next class. Be safe over the holidays and enjoy this one to the fullest._

_~ZS_


	24. Lesson 24: Conflict Resolution 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 24: Conflict Resolution 101, or Operations on All Sides_

* * *

_Author's Note: At the last segment of the 4:30 segment, when a certain letter is brought into the narrative conversation, I recommend playing "re:stung" from the Blazblue Song Accord #2. I know I don't do this normally but I think it'll give you an idea of what the scene feels like if you're into that kind of thing._

* * *

**Thursday, August 22, 11:10 AM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: Fourth Division Barracks**

The moment Captain-General Yamamoto got back to Seireitei, he lent an impatient ear to the oral report prepared for him by one of the junior members of his division, debriefing him on the current situation, before setting off for the Fourth Division post-haste. He needed to know what the lieutenants knew and get the results of the Central 46 autopsies as soon as humanly possible, which left no time to waste on anything but the essentials.

Even at his top speed, it took a few minutes for him to reach the Fourth, and when he got there a small, thin, boyish-looking Reaper was at the entrance to nervously lead Yamamoto to the room where the two Lieutenants were still out cold. As they strode down the clean, wooden hallways of the Fourth, the guide did his level best to ignore the rising heat behind him.

Eventually, they came to the room they were looking for, and the guide opened the door immediately.

"Here you are, sir," he said. "Captain Unohana, I've brought the Captain-General here to see you."

Unohana briefly stepped out and smiled down at her subordinate. "Thank you, Hanatarou-kun. Now, Captain-General, come inside. They're about to come around."

Yamamoto walked inside without a word, and stood over the two beds, where the women slept peacefully. Unohana, now alone with one of the few people in Soul Society that had been alive longer than she had, allowed her smile to slowly, gently fade away.

"They are unharmed, aside from some minor damages to their inner ears that I've already repaired. However, I was able to detect some traces of Spiritual Pressure left over from whatever attack knocked them out. It was definitely Captain Tousen."

For several long moments, Yamamoto said nothing at all, and as the temperature stayed relatively high in the room, she feared that anything he would say would be little more than impotent raging curses.

To her surprise, though, he said nothing, and simply stared down at his subordinates until they did in fact awaken.

Hinamori was the first to come around, groaning and rubbing her head. As she got up, she realized just whose company she was in, and immediately froze up.

"C-Captain-General, sir! I...I'm...!"

"Report," Yamamoto said. The words, despite the heat surrounding him, were cool, calm, precise. "No wasted words. Do it now."

Hinamori restrained the urge to gulp and did precisely as she was told, recounting the story perfectly. As the story continued, Unohana's placid, hiding-her-true-emotions smile began to slowly twitch downwards, while Yamamoto's internal rage continued to rise.

"I heard a loud ringing as soon as Ichimaru spoke to Matsumoto-san, and that's when I just couldn't stay standing. That was the last thing I remember before waking up here." She looked downward after that, blushing in shame. "I'm sorry, sir."

"You are not to blame," Yamamoto said stiffly. "You were betrayed. We all were. " He then looked over to a still-sleeping Matsumoto, noting that her face was wrinkling slightly, and allowed himself a short, tired breath that might have been a sigh. He then rubbed his face and turned toward the door.

"Unohana, take care of them. I have business to attend to."

Without any other words, he left. Hinamori watched him go with a bemused frown, then looked to Unohana.

"Is the Captain-General all right, Captain Unohana?"

Unohana's expression stayed neutral, but if one looked carefully they could see it edging into a frown. "He is not."

* * *

**11:25 AM**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase**

Uryuu Ishida liked to think that he was mature and professional enough to not fly into homicidal, Hollow-exterminating fits of rage at the drop of a hat.

Sadly, some things just set one off, and all the training in the world wouldn't fix it.

As he leapt onto a rooftop, still wearing his casual white polo and blue slacks, he nocked an arrow into his bow, Koujaku. Ishida focused on the sensation of an emerging Hollow a few yards away, and then let the shot loose. The arrow struck true, and Ishida managed a smile of satisfaction as the sensation of the arrow's Spiritual Energy washed over him, and matched his own.

The moment of satisfaction faded as he remembered the events of about an hour ago.

* * *

_The clown-faced fool that stood in front of them rubbed Ishida wrong by virtue of his facepaint, his mad grimace-grin, and his overall attitude smacked of arrogance. The girl that accompanied him—when prompted, she'd introduced herself as Nemu Kurotsuchi, and everyone present bar Ichigo pulled a double take—was quiet and extremely reserved, but did everything that the swaggering Kurotsuchi told her to._

_To be honest, Ishida didn't quite know what to think of the fact that such a person was one of Kurosaki's superior officers._

"_I'd heard of a Quincy amongst you," Kurotsuchi said, surveying Ishida, Tatsuki, Orihime, and Chad with evident distaste. "Which one of you is it?"_

_Ishida stepped forward, his gaze cool. "That would be me, Kurotsuchi," he replied. "Whatever tests you have to do, let's have them done and move on already."_

_Kurotsuchi sniffed, and then waved a hand in Nemu's direction. "Nemu, prepare the scanner."_

"_Remember, Captain, don't get carried away," Ichigo said, standing behind Kurotsuchi to survey the whole scene. Yamamoto had not given him the authority to do anything drastic, but he did have the authority to stop the test if something happened to any of his friends. _

_He had no reservations about calling Kurotsuchi on anything that would hurt them, superior officer or not._

_Nemu held up the scanner, a wand with a flat rectangle wherein a screen was built, to Ishida's forehead, and Kurotsuchi hovered behind her, reading the monitor as the energy fluctuated._

"_Lower than I would've expected but still higher than the readings I pulled from most Quincy," Kurotsuchi muttered. "Someone's been flexing their spiritual muscles, I see." He looked up and pulled Nemu backwards a bit; his roughness and made Ishida scowl, especially since she seemed to just...go along with it. "Summon your bow. Fire a few shots. Quickly, now!"_

_Ishida raised his hand, and the pentacle jangled briefly before it was obscured by the blue surge of Ishida's Spiritual Energy forming the bow. Kurotsuchi let his brow twitch upward halfway; the bow was somewhere between appearing like a standard bow-shaped mass of energy and an actual bow, something that Kurotsuchi hadn't observed in most of the average Quincy that were around Ishida's age._

_**Interesting. Very interesting, **Kurotsuchi thought. **All of my previous Quincy research never presented a case like this in a subject so young. I'll have to keep going as far as I can given the inane limitations I have.**_

_Ishida scowled as he followed Kurotsuchi's instructions, loosing shots at regular intervals. Kurotsuchi stared upward, focusing his eyes on the shots as they traveled into the sky. The scanner registered no change in the arrows' Spiritual Energy, indicating that they hadn't been modified like normal Quincy arrows were and were tuned to Ishida's spiritual resonance._

"_Well, I must admit. For a Quincy, you're somewhat interesting," Kurotsuchi remarked blandly, making a motion with his hand for Ishida to stop firing. "None of the ones I studied in-depth displayed the ability to use their own Spiritual Energy to utilize the Quincy techniques. A rather novel way of working around your limitations, I suppose."_

_Something about the way Kurotsuchi said the words "studied in-depth" made Ishida's skin crawl. Despite himself, though, he had to ask the question. "And what do you mean by that?"_

_Kurotsuchi's face twisted into his crude approximation of a smile. "Oh, nothing major. A few dissections here, some poking and prodding around there. The only real downside was all of the shrieking and the gibbering and the fools swearing 'on the Honor of the Quincy'. It's awfully difficult to study in peace with that kind of noise."_

_Ichigo's scowl grew darker, while Tatsuki shot the captain a heated glare and Orihime put a hand to her mouth, her brown eyes wide with dismay. Chad's reaction was the most understated, but looking carefully one could see him regarding Kurotsuchi with a new distaste._

_In contrast, Ishida's reaction was uncharacteristic; he immediately let the bow dissipate and grabbed the purple cravat around Kurotsuchi's neck and shoulders, staring into his eyes with unmistakable malice._

"_Say that again, you pompous clown."_

"_Nemu," Kurotsuchi said. _

_The girl, without blinking, took her free hand and pried Ishida's hand off of Kurotsuchi, finger by finger. Ishida noted, despite his anger, that her hands were warm, and surprisingly strong despite their thinness. That moment passed, though, when Nemu pulled him away from Kurotsuchi, allowing the mad scientist to use his marginal height advantage and leer down at Ishida._

"_Listen to me, boy," Kurotsuchi said, his grimace growing by the second. "Every single one of those mewling Quincies, right down to the rotting old man that went on and on about his grandson, kept babbling about that stupid Pride. I don't care, in the slightest, about any of that. What matters to me is that you, Kurosaki, and every other thing that has a form in this world or the next ones—myself included in that definition—exist to be investigated and analyzed by men of science. If I have to kill you and take your soul back to Soul Society to get that done? I don't mind it in the slightest. So. Cease your prattling and cooperate with me, or I will MAKE YOU."_

_Ishida bristled, especially at mention of the "old man", but he could feel Nemu's grip on his collar tighten as he tensed up. Eventually, though, he backed off, forcing himself to relax, at which point Nemu let him go._

_Ichigo stepped between them and focused his stare on Kurotsuchi. "Captain, you were out of line," he said sternly. "None of that was necessary."_

_Kurotsuchi didn't even blink. "Mind your manners, boy. Yamamoto might have given you a little bit of authority but not enough to countermand a direct order from me." _

_Despite himself, Ishida sighed. "Kurosaki, it's fine." _

"_No, Ishida, it's not," Ichigo replied, his voice raised slightly, without turning to look at Ishida. "He spoke badly to you and I don't appreciate it, captain or not."_

"_We don't have time for this, Kurosaki, and the matter is over and done with," Ishida said, folding his arms and glaring at Kurotsuchi. "Right now, I'd just like to be finished with these...tests."_

_Ichigo could tell that so far as Ishida was concerned, things weren't as settled as he claimed they were, but didn't bother to press the issue, and instead went to go stand with the others, who now regarded Kurotsuchi with clear dislike._

* * *

At the time, he'd been too angry to process it fully, but now, with the ability to sit and really think about what Kurotsuchi had said, Ishida knew for sure that his grandfather had been one of Kurotsuchi's victims.

That sobering realization brought Ishida out of his moment of self-satisfaction, and he stood on the roof with his arms hanging loosely at his sides, shoulders slumped, and a sad frown on his face.

"Kurosaki's practically under the man's thumb," Ishida whispered, clenching his fists. "And for all intents and purposes, Kurotsuchi's untouchable. No matter what he did to me, to Sensei, to the Quincy...he's got the might of Soul Society behind him."

He bared his teeth in an angry snarl, and kicked a loose piece of tile nearby before beginning to pace to and fro, becoming more and more ignorant of the world around him as his focus shifted inward. "Damn it, damn it all! Why? Why would they let such a psychopath run free? Can't they see it?"

Lost in his growing rage, he didn't sense the Hollow emerging a few rooftops away from him; it was wiry and lanky, resembling a jackal. Its mask was chipped in a few spots, with two large spikes in the back that were cocked forward like a dog's ears. It knew nothing of Ishida's distraction, but continued to sneak up on him nonetheless, utilizing its instinctive drive for stealth before striking as it leaped from roof to roof.

It was only when it stepped on the roof that Ishida stood upon that the Quincy noticed his enemy; he cursed and formed his bow, but his reaction time, honed as it was, couldn't compensate for its proximity and speed.

And then, before he could be mauled, a burst of red fire crashed into the Hollow, knocking it on its back. Startled, Ishida turned to his right to see who'd launched the attack that just saved his life—and was greeted by the sight of a smugly grinning Tatsuki, in her powered state, landing on the rooftop. His passive, logical center registered how high up they were and mentally applauded her for making and sticking the jump.

"Hey there, dumbass," she said, flexing a scaled, clawed hand. "You mind sharing what had you so distracted that a small fry Hollow like that nearly ate your face?"

Ishida took a moment to look at the Hollow, noting that Tatsuki's fiery attack was charring it down to cinders even as it thrashed where it lay. Though the reddish-orange haze he could make out its sharp claws and teeth, and privately sent up a prayer of thanks that he hadn't been put on the wrong side of them.

"...none of your business," he replied at length. "Thank you for the assistance, however."

"I may not like you very much, Ishida, but I'm not going to let you get hurt because of that," Tatsuki said, and Ishida understood that to be the closest she would get to saying _"you're welcome."_ "But seriously, it's not like you to get so worked up that you would miss a Hollow of all things. Next to the Soul Reapers you're the best sensor we've got." She put her hands on her hips, regarding him with her catlike eyes, and Ishida was surprised at the semi-evident concern in her face and posture.

After a moment of silent internal debate, he decided to stop being so difficult.

"Kurotsuchi," he said at last. "He pisses me off. Tremendously."

"Well, why didn't you just say _that,_" Tatsuki replied, scowling. "I think even Orihime doesn't like him and it's almost impossible for her to hate anyone normally. Especially after what he said to you about—"

"I was there, I remember what he said," Ishida snapped, turning away from her. "And the last thing I want to remember is that my grandfather and my people were cut apart like cheap rags for that sick freak's entertainment!"

The venom in his voice chilled Tatsuki more than the brief gust of wind that struck them, but she soon managed to recover herself. "...sorry."

After a few moments of punctuated silence, Ishida composed himself, leveling his shoulders but refusing to look at Tatsuki all the same. "It's fine. Now if you'll excuse me, I have places to be."

With that, he used Hirenkyaku to move off to the next rooftop, ignoring the thundering pulse in his ears, baying for Kurotsuchi's blood, as well as the bits of guilt that reprimanded him for how he spoke to Tatsuki.

His pride, however, refused to let him turn around.

Tatsuki simply watched him go, and then sighed, shaking her head tiredly and whipping her lengthened hair around.

"Idiot. "

* * *

**4:30 PM**

**Seireitei, Soul Society: First Division Barracks, Captains' Meeting Room**

It had taken some time, but the butterflies that Yamamoto had ordered dispatched shortly after seeing Hinamori and Unohana eventually made it to the remaining captains of the Gotei 13, and the Captain-General's stern, ponderously spoken order for all captains to report to him at half-past four on the dot made even Kenpachi Zaraki arrive at the meeting room on time.

However, when they arrived at the room and were escorted in by Yamamoto's lieutenant Sasakibe, they were surprised to find their normally punctual commander absent. With no chairs or sitting cushions available, they assumed their standing positions as was customary at more serious gatherings, with the even-numbered captains on the right of the Captain-General's seat and the odd ones on the left.

"This isn't like old man Yama at all," Kyouraku said, scratching his stubbled chin with a bemused frown. "Wonder what's keeping him."

Kurotsuchi snorted in annoyance; he'd had to leave Nemu in charge of some of his experiments to come to the meeting, and though he knew she wouldn't be irresponsible with his work it still galled him that he'd been called away from it. "Whatever it is it had best be important. I have more pressing concerns to attend to."

"Considering that he came back without the man he went to capture, and that we're missing yet another captain, I would dare say that this matter is of the utmost importance," Soifon responded, her voice harsh with annoyance at Kurotsuchi's impatience and contempt. "Undoubtedly more _pressing_ than your little mad scientist games."

That shot caused Kurotsuchi to raise a brow and step forward a bit so that he could leer at Soifon with his bare-toothed grimace-grin. "Are you attempting to test my patience? You're succeeding. And I promise you you won't like the results."

Despite Kurotsuchi's height advantage, diminished somewhat by the distance between them, Soifon was not intimidated, and didn't even deign to reply to his threat. Of course this only served to madden Kurotsuchi more, but before he could do something stupid, the door slid open, and Yamamoto strode in. Behind him, Rangiku walked in, her head bowed and her gray eyes heavy with distraction, while two pairs of Reapers pushed in a large wheeled cart with a monitor sitting on top of it.

Hitsugaya failed to hide his surprise at his lieutenant's appearance, while everyone else simply blinked at the huge machine. Yamamoto simply made his way to his seat and stood before it, facing his captains.

"We have a situation. Rather, several situations." His face was neutral, his voice was neutral, and yet the way he carried himself, the way he looked, his overall demeanor, suggested that he was one step above flash-frying whoever or whatever deigned to ruin his day next. "First and foremost, there is the matter of the Central 46. Captain Unohana?"

Unohana sighed, and for a moment wished she could massage her temples to ward off the burgeoning headache she felt. "To put it bluntly, they're dead, down to the last man. I can't pin down a precise date but preliminary results indicate a time frame shortly after Kurosaki-kun's duel with Captain Kuchiki."

Every captain present, bar Kurotsuchi, Zaraki, Yamamoto, and of course Unohana herself, had some sort of reaction to the news. Hitsugaya and Ukitake both shared a look of utter dismay, while Kyouraku scratched at his stubble again, though with much less levity in his movements and a somewhat furrowed brow. Soifon, Komamura, and Byakuya managed to do little more than tense or twitch at the news, but knowing them that was equivalent to a shout.

"This means that all orders issued by the 46 since then are false," Yamamoto continued, leaning on his cane more heavily for a moment, "and that is why I did not return with Urahara. The order to capture him was falsified, by whatever means, and I refused to act knowingly on that information."

"Surely you don't mean to let him stay free, Captain-General," Soifon said, fighting past her shock to keep her voice level. "False orders or not, he is a criminal, an escaped one at that."

Yamamoto shook his head, knowing precisely what Soifon was trying to do. "He knows something about the enemy we face, and likely would not give his aid if we attempt to capture or imprison him—or his accomplices. For now, we will have to work with him or we will be at a disadvantage."

"The enemy?" Komamura asked. "Do you mean the person or persons that's employed Ichimaru?"

After a moment, Yamamoto nodded. "Yes. And, possibly, the same person has employed Kaname Tousen, or at least convinced him to betray us."

That statement caused Komamura to do more than flinch; his large, gloved fists violently clenched, popping several knuckles at once. Then, his shoulders sagged; Yamamoto knew that the news would hit Komamura hard, but not quite that hard.

"It can't be true," whispered Komamura. The echo of his helmet made his voice hollower, emptier, sadder than it really was. "It can't be."

Gently, Unohana shook her head. "Captain Tousen's Spiritual Pressure was left on Lieutenants Matsumoto and Hinamori, and that wouldn't have happened unless he'd attacked them or used some sort of spell on them. Moreover, Lieutenant Hinamori's description of what happened to her fits the description and demonstration of Suzumushi's special ability."

For a moment, it appeared that Komamura would argue the point further, but after a moment, he shook his head and let it hang low. Yamamoto almost sighed, but simply shook his head instead.

"We also received a parting gift of sorts from Ichimaru," Yamamoto said. "Lieutenant Matsumoto found a tape and two letters in her office when she returned to her division; one of the letters and the tape are meant for our eyes only." He gestured toward the large screen, and one of the attendants turned it on, starting the video player built into the machine automatically.

A thin line spread across the screen, then widened and expanded, revealing a dark room. At the very center of it, within a pillar of light, Aizen, wearing his uniform and captain's coat was clearly standing, looking down on what appeared to be a blonde, dark-skinned woman. His right hand's fingers were curled inward, and something sat in the palm; its bright glow faded somewhat as the woman's heavy breaths echoed through the room, revealing the object to be a small, glass-looking prism.

"_So, Tier Harribel. How does it feel?"_

Aizen's voice was calm, but lacked its usual warmth, kindness, and humility. It was silken, smooth, and deep, giving Matsumoto and most of the captains a cold feeling down their spines. Most telling, though, were his eyes; even with the dodgy quality, something about the faint smile on Aizen's face didn't reach all the way up to where it should have.

The woman looked up, revealing that her face and upper body was covered from the middle of her nose down to the top half of her breasts by the bony remains of a Hollow mask. The large fragment sported a nasty, sharp-looking set of teeth, fused together in what appeared to be a devilish grin, in the area where her lower face and mouth were covered. Blonde hair spilled out behind her to the middle of her back, and her green-blue eyes fixed on Aizen with a half-lidded stare that was more alert than it seemed. Aside from the mask, though, she was naked as a jaybird.

"_To be an Arrancar, Lord Aizen?"_ she asked. Her voice was mature and measured, not too low-pitched, but not childishly high. _"...It is...different. It feels as if part of myself is missing, but...with time, I believe I can adjust."_

Aizen used his free hand to gesture at something on the floor next to Harribel's right hand. She looked down at it, though the viewers couldn't see it since that part of her body wasn't turned toward the camera.

"_I believe that is your missing part, so to speak,"_ he said. _"I imagine that using a sword which is not attached so closely to you will be a bit disconcerting at first, but you'll get used to it in time."_

Harribel continued to look down at the unseen weapon, and after her right arm shifted further back, she stood up, grasping the weapon in her right hand. When she did, at least part of the object became visible; a broad sword, similar to a katana in shape but much shorter. Hints of purple on the handle could be seen peeking through her fingers. Most curiously, the sword itself seemed to be made of nothing but the outer edges of an actual blade.

After a moment more of examining her blade, Harribel nodded once, bowing at the waist. _"Yes, Lord Aizen."_

The feed cut off rather abruptly after that, winking back to a thin white line before shrinking in on itself once more. With neither Aizen nor Harribel speaking anymore, the room had fallen deathly quiet, mostly as everyone pondered what they had just heard and what it meant they were going to be dealing with.

If one looked closely at Rangiku, they would see that the corners of her eyes were suspiciously wet.

"And what of the letter which Ichimaru addressed to us?" Byakuya asked, calmly gazing towards the Captain-General when it became obvious no one else was going to speak.

Yamamoto nodded to one of the Reapers that pushed in the viewing screen, a slim young man with wild sea-green hair, and he produced a scroll of medium length, reading it slowly and clearly for all of the captains to hear.

" 'If you all are reading this—or having it read to you, considering the way the Captain-General likes to be overly dramatic sometimes—then the situation has escalated, I've run away with Tousen, the whole nine yards. I'm also hoping you watched the security footage I left for you because otherwise what I have to say is probably going to...' " The Reaper sighed, then steeled himself. " '...piss all of you off. And really, I don't mind if it does—it's supposed to.' "

"Rather audacious, isn't he?" Kyouraku remarked, raising an eyebrow and letting a slight smile cross his face.

Soifon's eyes narrowed. "And I'm certain he'll regret every cheeky word once we find him." She looked at the Reaper with a hard frown. "Continue!"

"Yes, ma'am. Err...yes, as I was saying. 'The tapes will show you plain as day that Captain Aizen is about as far away from being dead as a Soul Reaper can be. It'll also give you an idea of what he's been doing since he had me help him fake his death. I don't quite know what he wants to do, but what I do know is that it involves making lots of Arrancar, like little miss Harribel. So far he's used that pretty little crystal Hougyoku thing to made a whole damn army of them—at least a hundred, maybe more. He calls his ten strongest ones the "Espada".' "

The green-haired Reaper stopped to swallow some of the extra saliva in his mouth, leaving a lull in the conversation.

"So this Hougyoku can turn Hollows into Arrancar," Hitsugaya said. His face set itself into a dark, brooding frown. "A distortion of the boundary between a Soul Reaper and a Hollow, induced artificially...?"

Ukitake folded his arms, his expression troubled and thoughtful at the same time. "It sounds too similar to the incident 100 years ago for my liking. Though that similarity could mean that this Hougyoku could be related to that incident, and if it is then perhaps Urahara could enlighten us as to its full capabilities."

Yamamoto shook his head. "We can discuss that later." He focused a single, half-opened eye on the far side of the room, where the green-haired reaper appeared ready to continue. "Finish the reading, Ueda."

Ueda nodded and cleared his throat. " 'I don't know what his ultimate goal is. At least not fully. He claims that he wants to stand in heaven and fill the unbearable vacancy there, but I was never good at figuring out sappy poetic imagery. Here's what I do know: he's pumping out Arrancar as quickly as his little crystal bauble can make them, and he's got his eyes set on Karakura Town because it's spiritually-saturated ground. Also, something about his Hougyoku is making it harder for him to build up his little army. I don't think he'll be comfortable making a move until some time in the winter. All of you have that long to figure out how you're going to stop him.' "

Ueda paused briefly after that, but only to look mildly disgusted, before putting back on his professional face and continuing. " 'Now, there's one more thing that you need to know—it's about Aizen's zanpakutou. When he told us that it uses reflections in the water to make illusions, he was lying quite a bit. If you ever see the release, you'll be put under his absolute hypnosis—your five senses will be completely bent to his control. There are only two ways to stop it. Touch the sword before he releases it, or...well, we all use more than five senses in this line of work anyway, so I'm sure you can figure that part out.

" 'That's all I have to say to you all. Good luck. See you in wintertime.' "

With that, Ueda rolled up the letter and put it on the stand beneath the monitor. The captains were all silent, while Rangiku simply looked at the furled-up letter, absently brushing away a strand of hair near her eye and something that looked like a tear.

_Gin. _She pressed her lips into a thin line, if only to stop herself from biting it. _Why would you do this? Betraying him, and "betraying" us for no good reason...you're planning something. But what is it? Why would you wait until now? And why won't you tell them that you're still loyal to us?_

"With all due respect, Captain-General, sir," Soifon said after a moment, "I do not believe we can trust a word he's said. Look at how freely he gave that information. Look at how conveniently events have fallen into place. We are being fooled."

"Or it could be his expectation, Captain Soifon, that we don't take him at his word," Kyouraku said. "Regardless of whether he's telling the truth or not, he's put us in the position where assuming too much of either will put us at a severe disadvantage. We'll have to plan for both situations and move forward from there."

Yamamoto nodded at his student; as expected, Kyouraku's understanding of the situation was similar to his own and delivered concisely on top of that. "You are correct, Captain Kyouraku. For now, we will treat this warning as if it is true and prepare for events that may occur if it is not."

Soifon's displeased frown did little to rattle the Captain-General, and he simply looked at the rest of his captains to see how they were handling the situation. Kyouraku's thoughtful expression was still on his face, and Ukitake and Unohana seemed to be gathering their own individual thoughts. Komamura's stature had recovered somewhat, but he'd been stock still ever since the revelation of Tousen's betrayal. Hitsugaya kept sneaking subtle looks at a despondent Rangiku, who'd become even more drawn into herself after the video stopped.

Of course, Zaraki, Kurotsuchi, and Byakuya were all outwardly unimpressed by whatever they'd heard. However, Yamamoto knew them all well enough to be certain that the Kuchiki's expression was a facade, and that out of all three of them Byakuya would likely be the most eager to kill Aizen, Tousen, or maybe even Ichimaru if the chance was available—it was a matter of honor so far as Byakuya was concerned, and that was as strong an impetus as could be expected from the otherwise restrained captain.

"I'll prepare a missive to be sent to Kurosaki and the others in the Living World," Yamamoto said. "Kurotsuchi. Once you've done what you need to do in respect to Kurosaki's friends, deliver the materials to Lieutenant Abarai and instruct him on how to use them."

Kurotsuchi grunted his assent and nodded roughly.

"As for Kurosaki, he'll need to start his training again. If push comes to shove, he will be needed to fight against this threat, and his current level of training is not enough."

"In that case," Byakuya said, "I would like to take charge of his training in swordsmanship. He needs much more refined control of his techniques, and the Eleventh is simply providing battle experience, not actual structure in his technique."

That comment got Zaraki interested, as he turned to actually stare at Byakuya once the insult was done echoing in the room.

"Ain't nothing complicated about swinging a goddamn sword, Kuchiki," the large man said, his voice low and rumbling. "It's a hunk of metal with a sharp edge and a pointy part at the tip. What more does the kid need to know aside from that and what he showed off during that little scuffle of yours?"

"It is simple to use a blade as a simpleton does. Wielding it with finesse and a proper understanding of techniques like the _senka_ is much more complex. And while it may serve you well to swing your sword about like a mad barbarian, you have both the brutish strength to compensate for your lack of skill and the fitness to endure all of the injuries you are too stupid to avoid incurring. Kurosaki, to some noticeable extent, lacks both of those traits."

Zaraki chuckled dryly, and put a hand to his zanpakutou's raggedy handle. "All right then, fancy boy. What say I show you just how far simple things like cutting and stabbing can take you? I don't mind reminding you how I earned the right to stand in here with a stuffed up peacock like you."

"I will grant your request, Captain Kuchiki, but I will also see to it that Kurosaki continues to receive training at the Eleventh, if only because it will provide a broad spectrum of opponents for him to face," Yamamoto said, fighting the urge to either groan or roll his eyes at the display. "Captain Zaraki, mind your tone, and do not draw your zanpakutou; you are speaking to a fellow captain, and if you intend to murder him you should at least not do so where all of us can see you."

Zaraki grunted, but let his hand stray away from his weapon; satisfied by that response, Yamamoto stood up from his seat.

"For now, you are all dismissed. Captains who were training Kurosaki, get your regimens prepared for his return during his days off from school. He will be back on rotational schedule once his classes begin anew."

With that, he walked forward, between the rows of captains, and from there the rest filed out behind him, except for Ueda and the other reaper that had brought in the viewing screen. Rangiku fell into step behind Hitsugaya as he passed by the screen, her head held up a bit higher but her gray eyes bleak, and was so quiet that the young captain had to wonder what she'd seen or heard to depress her so much.

"Rangiku," he said, keeping his voice low and conversational while continuing to walk forward and out of the room. "What's wrong?"

The sound of Rangiku's hair swishing through the air told Hitsugaya that she'd shaken her head. "Nothing, Captain."

Hitsugaya knew that tone in her voice; it was soft, hesitant, and barely noticeable underneath the professional exterior, but almost pleading him to just not ask. He disliked giving into it, but the few times he'd tried to press her on matters when the tone came up, she'd been extremely evasive and even more melancholy afterward, so he just let the matter drop as they moved through the halls to the exit of the First Division.

* * *

It took Hitsugaya and Rangiku around forty-five minutes to make it back to the Tenth Division; they were judicious in their use of Flash Steps primarily because the long walk gave them both time to think things over.

Once they arrived, Hitsugaya went straight to his office to catch up on some paperwork; Rangiku went to hers as well, closing the sliding door behind her quietly and carefully. She then went over to her desk and pulled out what seemed to be an ordinary piece of paper from the bottom of the much-shrunken pile of paperwork she had yet to do.

However, it wasn't a work document, but a letter, stenciled in the same thin, precise handwriting that Ichimaru's letter to the Captains had been written in. She'd found it in her room after she'd been released from the Fourth earlier that day, alongside the letter to the captains, and the tape that the video had been on. Despite herself, she'd taken the time to read it several times before taking the proper evidence to the Captain-General, and though she knew she should have, she couldn't bring herself to submit the much more personal document to him as well.

Once again, she read the contents of the letter, feeling her heart sink and break bit by bit as she did.

_Ran._

_I'm sorry it came to this so soon. But I've been waiting for a long time, a very long time, to do this. Not to run away from you, or from Soul Society, but to get revenge on Aizen. He stole something precious from you, Ran, when he tried to make his Hougyoku, and even though I know I can't give it back to you he still has to pay for it._

_Everything I've done until now has been a play to let me get closer to him. Every trick, every murder, everything. I don't expect you to forgive me for any of it—you or anyone else—but if nothing else, I want you to know that I went to all this trouble because you are the most important person in what I call a life._

_I know you would have wanted me to just let it go. I know you would've been happier if I'd just stayed here, not chasing after vengeance. But to get my chance to crush Aizen, I had to leave that part of me—the kind part, the loving part, the normal part—behind._

_Now that I've shed that skin, all I am is a snake, eating whatever prey looks tasty. And that prey will be Aizen until I kill him with my own hands._

_So, Ran. I want you to live on. Without this snake at your throat._

_Gin_

Two streams of tears began to flow down Rangiku's cheeks.

"You goddamn idiot. Why didn't you just..."

Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground, and pressed her free hand to her face.

"If you knew I would be OK with you staying, why didn't you just stay?"

She kept her sobs quiet even as her shoulders shook and shuddered with emotion.

* * *

**END OF CLASS**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_With any luck, the next will be the last._

_And lots of ideas are being had for Second Semester. I may get it started with a few pre-written chapters, but chapter length is likely going to be more variable in the interest of updating more frequently._

_Assuming, of course, that I actually write it._

_I feel sort of bad for stringing along everyone with the Kai thing since people who are just starting to read the story tend to write reviews along the lines of "who in the hell is this guy?" But then again, it was fun to do it. Lots of fun._

_Cultural Notes and Translations:_

_None._

_Student Review Corner:_

_FlawlessCowboy2552 (Ch.23): I'm finally beginning to realize that, which is why Second Semester will be a bit more varied in terms of chap length. I want to go back to 2x updates a month and it might be easier if I don't try to push things anymore._

_Hello goodbye my spider fly (Ch.23): Aizen doesn't have any use for them, or any vested interest in coercing anyone, least of all Hitsugaya. Simple as that._

_So, as I said, the last chapter will be on its way. After that I'll be taking a break. It's my hope to come back and do Second Semester, but there are certain complications that may prevent that in the future if I don't plan for it properly._

_Regardless, I'll see all of you for the next and final class. Take care, and enjoy._

_~ZS_


	25. Lesson 25: Exam Preparation 101

_Substitute School, First Semester: General Education_

_A Bleach Fanfic_

_Written by Zero-Sennin_

_Lesson 25: Exam Preparation 101, or Taking the Big Tests_

* * *

**Monday, August 26, Noon**

**Karakura Town, Minamikawase: Kurosaki Residence/Clinic**

In a week, on September 2nd, Ichigo would have to go back to school.

And, to be wholly honest, he was not looking forward to it.

Despite himself, the pattern he had fallen into over the last couple of days had been extremely comfortable. He'd wake up in the morning and have breakfast with Renji, Rukia, and his family, then go out for the rest of the day and train together. With Red Flame Cannon more or less resolved, he was moving on to Blue Fire, Crash Down, and some other minor binding techniques alongside his swordplay.

However, he was still worried by a number of things; Renji and Rukia had nothing to report since the failed Urahara apprehension, and he often saw them whispering about something when they were sure he wasn't looking.

On occasion, they would see Tatsuki, Orihime, Chad, or Ishida walking to Urahara's, and while they would say hello, Renji and Rukia intimated in a number of ways that they didn't have time to sit and chat with anyone, so he hadn't seen them very often, if at all.

Monday afternoon saw Ichigo and Rukia sparring on a flat rooftop in Ichigo's neighborhood, as they had been for the last couple of days. Renji and Ichigo's session yesterday had ended in Renji's favor, though it had been a dead heat near the end and thanks to Renji getting a bit too overeager, a thin, still-fading scar ran up the middle of Ichigo's chest; the tip of it was visible just beneath the white robes he wore under the black ones of his uniform.

Presently, Ichigo and Rukia were circling each other; Zangetsu and Sode no Shirayuki were in their _shikai _forms, but Ichigo's armband was on and Rukia's Spiritual Energy was locked down tight, pitting sword against sword at normal speed and power.

After a moment, Ichigo made the first move, charging in and swinging wide. Rukia stepped back, letting Ichigo's blade hit the ground, then darted in, taking one hand from Sode no Shirayuki and flipping her index and pointer fingers out at him.

"Hadou 4."

Ichigo bit back a curse and yanked Zangetsu up, barely blocking the burst of lightning that flew at him. By the time he pulled Zangetsu down for another strike, Rukia was swinging Sode no Shirayuki at him; the white ribbon's trail through the air distracted him for a moment, and she took that chance to swing her sword upwards in a perfect strike.

Had Ichigo not jerked his head back, his chin would have been marked with more than the thin scratch that Sode no Shirayuki left trailing up towards his mouth as it cut upwards at him.

Biting back a frustrated curse, Ichigo instinctively moved backwards, mentally keeping track of where the edge of the roof was. His air-walking skill was so natural to him now that he wouldn't fall from it unless he'd used up all of his Spiritual Energy with Getsuga Tenshous, but he preferred to remain aware of his surroundings regardless; he could still be taken by surprise if he stepped out over air when he expected to stay on solid ground.

With a step, Rukia came in and brought her blade down as if to cleave through his head, and he quickly rolled to the side this time, then rammed her with his shoulder, using a quick burst of Spiritual Pressure vented from his back to speed him up.

Renji, standing on the sidelines, winced, and practically felt his teeth creak when he grimaced as Rukia hit the ground. If he said anything to disrupt either of them at this juncture, he was likely to get yelled at, so he held his tongue so strongly he might have ripped it off if it were possible.

It was a testament to Rukia's growing prowess that she kipped up moments before Ichigo bore down on her with Zangetsu, springing back out of the way of his swing. However, while she was still airborne, the Deputy Reaper used another smooth burst of Spiritual Pressure to circle around to her side and lash out with a fierce kick.

He hadn't seen her slip her hand free of Shirayuki again, though, and so his foot smashed into a transparent blue wall instead of her ribcage. With no incantation and barely any prep time, the shield shattered as soon as he struck it, but that was distraction enough for her to gather her Energy again and fire another spell as she began to land.

"Bakudou 9, Strike!"

Ichigo felt his entire body seize as the red filled his vision, and before he could even begin to concentrate on breaking the spell, Rukia landed and smoothly approached him, pointing Shirayuki directly at his throat.

"Time for you to yield."

"You got lucky," Ichigo managed to say, grateful that she hadn't bound his jaw up at the very least. "And I'm not gonna give up just yet."

He flared his Pressure, crudely throwing off the Strike spell, and ducked low, swinging his leg out for a sweeping kick. Rukia was too quick, though, and jumped over the attack, then kicked him in the temple.

Of course, she used her full strength, and as a result, Ichigo went flying like a limp doll, sailing over the nearby edge of the roof and falling out of sight. Behind her, Renji snorted a few times before breaking out into a fit of raucous laughter, completely unable to keep on his "serious" face.

"Good one, Rukia," he managed to say between laughs. "Been practicing your Hakuda, I see."

Rukia stood up from her landing crouch and shook her head. It was only for a moment, but she spared a glance to where Ichigo had fallen, and laughed softly. "Hakuda? Not at all. That was just a regular kick."

It was then that Ichigo's hands slapped down angrily on the edge of the roof, and the sound made Renji and Rukia jump in fright.

"A regular kick?" Ichigo said as he pulled his head up over the edge of the roof. "Felt more like someone shot a rocket at my face. What if I'd died?"

"You used to get your ass beaten to a paste by Captain Soifon, didn't you?" Renji replied. "Compared to that, none of us should be able to hurt you that badly."

Ichigo put his other hand on the roof and climbed up; brushing off the bottom of his robes as he stood, then gave Renji a flat stare. "Your Zabimaru nearly cut me in half yesterday. I'd say that's a good example of hurting me badly, don't you?"

The redhead adjusted his visor, and looked away, scowling. "Rukia could have healed it!"

"Renji, you could have cut him in half from groin to neck if he hadn't moved in time," Rukia said, pressing her face into her hand with a sigh. "I'm pretty sure Captain Unohana would have had a hard time fixing that, which means I would've been able to do precisely nothing."

The statement did little to mollify Renji, but before the conversation could continue, Ichigo's Soul Phone went off. Sighing, he dug into his robes for the device and checked its screen.

_I have important news and an errand to run in Karakura. Be prepared to take me to Urahara when I arrive in five minutes._

_Captain Soifon_

"What is it, Ichigo?" Rukia asked, noticing how his brows seemed to furrow a bit more.

"Captain Soifon is stopping by soon. She needs to do something at Urahara's place today, apparently." He frowned. "But even for her this message is terse. I think she's not in a good mood today. Renji's trash talk must have pissed her off somehow."

The redhead rolled his eyes, but didn't verbally respond.

* * *

As she'd promised, Soifon arrived five minutes after her text message, dropping down from the sky in a blur of Flash Steps. She had a brown box tucked under her arm, which she set down on the ground as soon as she could. Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji all bowed slightly, and in turn, she returned the greeting with a nod.

"There is no time for pleasantries, so I'll be blunt," she said. "Things have been going on since you were deployed here, and with Kurosaki returning to Soul Society soon I'll have to fill you in on them now." Her face twisted into a sudden frown, and Ichigo could almost taste the irritation and anger surging through her Spiritual Energy. "It will be a lot to take in, so listen carefully. If you interrupt me, this will take longer than it needs to."

And, with that, she began to explain what had happened since Yamamoto's return to Soul Society.

Ichigo's face went from confused, to blank, to shocked, to perplexed, to disbelieving, and back again as Soifon told him, Rukia, and Renji about Aizen's betrayal, Tousen's defection, and everything else they'd learned since. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Renji was paling and Rukia was shaking her head slowly, covering her mouth with one hand as if she was going to throw up.

What bothered Ichigo most, though, was Aizen. He couldn't imagine the soft-spoken brunette captain doing what Soifon said he had done, no matter how seriously she said it. Aizen had always been kind to him, stepping in when Hinamori's explanations didn't quite bridge the gap, getting food for him and Hinamori to eat between training sessions... So why would he want to betray Soul Society, and hurt Hinamori so carelessly? What would he have to gain by making these "Arrancar"?

None of it made any sense, not in the slightest.

"...and that is the situation as it stands now," Soifon said, and Ichigo forced himself to focus on her words, having missed some parts of the conversation thanks to his distraction. "By now everyone else in Soul Society has started to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Kurosaki, your training is going to start again as soon as you get back into school, so prepare yourself for sessions with Captain Kuchiki in addition to the rotational schedule we used before you left on your vacation."

His concentration was still too split to give an answer that wasn't monosyllabic, so Ichigo simply nodded in understanding.

"Now that we have covered that, I need to see Urahara and deliver these new Suppression Bands to those friends of yours. The bands will not be hard-locked, so they will be able to perform at their maximum strength should they have probable cause and need to remove them." She narrowed her eyes and glanced meaningfully at Ichigo. "If they do so lightly, there will be problems. I will let them know, but if you are near them it will be your responsibility to monitor their use."

"I understand, Captain," Ichigo said, doing his best to meet her eyes without getting distracted again.

Soifon matched his gaze for a few moments more, and then picked up the box. "Good. Now, time is short. Lead me to Urahara."

* * *

**12:15 PM**

**Karakura Town, Mitsumiya: Urahara Shop**

If there was anything that Kisuke Urahara hated, it was tense moments like the one he was dealing with right now.

While in the middle of an otherwise uneventful training session that Ichigo's friends had set up, the Deputy Reaper had stopped by with Soifon, Renji, and Rukia in tow. While the latter two greeted him politely enough once they stepped into the training room, Soifon did nothing but glare daggers at him the entire time, and was continuing to do so even as she explained to him the terms of a deal that Yamamoto was willing to broker with him.

"We understand now that Aizen possesses a Hougyoku, and that it is somehow involved with the Hollowfication experiment that got you exiled," she said. Behind her, Tatsuki, Orihime, Chad, and Ishida were busy swapping out their old armbands for the new ones; Kurotsuchi had included a dissolving agent for the old ones in the box, so removal had been quick and painless. Ichigo simply stood and watched, though he was also trying to underscore how careful they had to be with removing them. "That being the case, your knowledge would be indispensable. Captain-General Yamamoto would like to suggest an extension of the truce we have now, as well as collaboration between your shop and Soul Society, until we have stopped Aizen's threat permanently."

Urahara opened his fan and raised an eyebrow, masking the lower part of his face. "It sounds tempting, but will he be able to live up to that promise once the Central 46 is reconvened? Not many nobles would be willing to view this kind of alliance as necessary or proper—I am an exile after all. It wouldn't surprise me if they override his deal just to be sure that I'm not a threat."

Soifon's frown grew deeper. She couldn't exactly disagree with that line of logic, though she loath as she was to agree with Urahara of all people. "Nor would it surprise me. But the fact of the matter is that you are in no position to ignore this any more than we are. Aizen may not know precisely where in this town you are, but he is aware that you are here; he was informed of that much. And considering that Karakura Town in whole is his target, there's no escaping him if he attacks this place."

"That much is true," Urahara said, turning away from Soifon to stare up at the artificial sky. "But I still have nothing to gain directly by helping you all, I'm afraid. Considering the risk you're asking me to take, you're offering very little as an incentive."

It took all of Soifon's willpower to avoid nibbling at her lip in frustration. Urahara was being stubborn mostly because he could, and while she did have a contingency that might make him more agreeable to the idea of helping out, it would basically mean tipping her hand in a big way. Yamamoto had specifically ordered her to avoid using it unless she had no other choice...

She took a silent breath and made the plunge.

"Captain-General Yamamoto will grant you, Yoruichi Shihouin—"she swallowed the knot in her throat—"and Tessai Tsubakishi full amnesty for your actions. That is, if Aizen is successfully apprehended with your assistance, and if you are able to prove that you did not transform the missing captains and lieutenants 100 years ago."

Urahara raised an eyebrow, but kept his back turned to her. "And the 46?"

"Their objections will be silenced." _Though only God knows how, s_he added to herself. "The Captain-General has vowed on his sword to see that through no matter what."

For a few more moments, the only sounds that passed through the training room came from Ichigo and his friends; they'd fallen into a quick sparring session to test out the new armbands, and Ichigo had drawn first blood on Chad by knocking him into a rock, while Tatsuki dodged shots from Ishida's bow, and Renji and Rukia practiced together. Orihime was standing by, ready to heal anyone if necessary.

"On Ryuujin Jakka itself?" the shopkeeper said at last. "My, my. He's serious, then."

"Will you help or not, Urahara?" Soifon asked, pressing her lips together so that she wouldn't start to growl. "Now is not the time for your stalling and childish games!"

Sighing, Urahara turned to face her, putting his fan away with a few quick flicks of the wrist. "Now, now, captain. There's no need for all of that." His gray eyes peered out at her from beneath the shadows of his hat, and they were serious enough to still Soifon's tongue. "I'll help out. So long as you get the same deal for Shinji Hirako and the other Visored."

Soifon furrowed her brow. "Visored?" she asked. "Is that what they call themselves now?"

"I like it," Urahara said with a sly grin. "Considering what their powers are like now, anyway."

"At any rate, inform these...Visored of the deal when you speak to them next. Do whatever you feel is necessary to make them accept it."

Urahara wagged his pointer finger and clicked his tongue. "I would like to remind you, Captain, that neither the Visored nor I take orders from you or your superiors. At least, not anymore. Therefore, I will _attempt _to inform them of the deal _if _I speak to them soon, and if they feel like accepting it, they will. If they don't, we'll have to make do without them."

Soifon sighed. "Fine." However, suddenly she frowned as a familiar Spiritual Energy twinged across her senses before she could continue speaking, and Urahara noticed it as quickly as she did, paling rapidly as she turned toward the entrance to the training room. Before he could stop her, Soifon had already launched into the fastest Flash Step she could manage, hurtling herself across the room.

* * *

At the entrance, Yoruichi, holding the unsealed Souboukon in her hand, looked up, recognizing Soifon's rising Spiritual Pressure. Despite herself, she smiled tiredly, and raised Souboukon to the side of her head.

She was therefore unpleasantly surprised when Soifon appeared and kicked her in the head, knocking her over—but only because Soifon's kick had actually come from the right and not the left as she'd anticipated.

"I'm not the same little girl you left behind, Yoruichi Shihouin," Soifon said, her voice cold as she landed. "You shouldn't assume that I haven't grown at all in over a hundred years."

Yoruichi pouted a bit as she sat up, rubbing her injured cheek with a sigh. "Well, well you haven't outgrown your hastiness. Would it have killed you to just say hello like a normal person would?" For a moment, the faked whining dropped from her voice, and her eyes became hard. "Unless you came here to fight, in which case..."

Soifon gazed down at her former mentor and leader, ignoring the softer part of herself that still missed Yoruichi. "Much as I wish I could take the time to knock you off your throne, I'm not here to do that. I'm simply delivering a message and some goods to your foolish shopkeeper friend and the human children."

Yoruichi stood up and folded her arms as Urahara touched down behind Soifon. "Well, fine. If you've done what you needed, you can leave."

"I will leave when I feel like I need to," Soifon responded, biting off each and every word as she returned Yoruichi's angry stare. "Rush me at your peril."

Though Urahara somewhat towered over the two women, he was reluctant to put himself in the middle of things to make them stop. When the tense standoff had gone on for at least five more seconds, he gently cleared his throat, and Yoruichi rounded on him in annoyance, though she softened her expression when he gave her a tired, but somewhat pointed, glance.

"Captain Soifon, please stop antagonizing Yoruichi," he said, looking between the two of them. "Yoruichi, stop trying to bait the Captain. Your problems with each other aside, you're both mature women; you should be above petty bickering regardless of whether you still hate each others' guts or not."

After a moment, the two women nodded curtly; Soifon was the first to turn away from Urahara, looking toward the ladder behind Yoruichi that led back up to the Urahara Shop.

"I have delivered my goods and done my duty. See to it that the humans receive the new armbands, Urahara. And as for you, Yoruichi...we will settle our account once Aizen has been defeated."

Yoruichi folded her arms, rubbing the thumb that rested on Souboukon's handle along the smooth black wood. "I have no objections to that."

With that said, Soifon brushed past her former mentor and began to climb the ladder. Before she'd gone up more than ten rungs, though, she felt a huge burst of Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure, and stopped where she was to look over at where he was training with Chad.

Below her, Urahara and Yoruichi did the same thing; Urahara went so far as to whistle in surprise.

"My, my. Ichigo-kun's quite the dynamo." He allowed himself a sly smile. "I suppose I ought to make my offer to him sooner than I thought."

Soifon heard him speak and dropped down from the ladder to stare up at him. "What offer?"

Urahara's grin grew. "Nothing important. Just something to give him an edge in this next battle. He'll probably need it."

Soifon glared at him for a moment longer, and he could see, beneath the anger, legitimate concern about something—or rather, someone. He could guess whom it was, considering who he'd just been speaking to her about, but for the sake of his health, he'd keep the smart-ass remarks he could make to himself.

At length, Soifon left them again, climbing the ladder without hesitation this time. Urahara and Yoruichi didn't bother watching her go, and instead Flash Stepped towards Ichigo and Chad. The two boys had stopped their fight after Chad hit a large rock nearby, and Orihime had rushed over to start healing a bleeding Chad; the larger teenager was lying on the ground while Ichigo stared off into space, his expression troubled and breaths heavy. Zangetsu had been propped against a nearby rock, clean of blood but still radiating some of Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure.

"Someone likes to hit hard, I see," Yoruichi said teasingly, glancing at the Chad-shaped impression in the huge piece of stone. "Where'd that come from, Ichigo?"

Startled by the unfamiliar voice, Ichigo jerked around to see who was speaking to him, scowling to cover up his momentary surprise. "Who are you and how do you know my name?" he asked, folding his arms.

Yoruichi simply returned his expression with a friendly, cat-like smile. "I'm Yoruichi Shihouin. Kisuke's talked about you a lot. Plenty of good things to say about you, too. You sound like quite the prodigy."

Ichigo spared Urahara a semi-withering glance. "Well, I'm honored. Though I don't know what he told you."

Urahara raised his hands in surrender. "Now, now, Ichigo-kun, don't give me that look. I only told her because I figured she would be able to help you out a bit—she just needed a bit of incentive to pay attention to you. I've discussed some things with her at length and I'm going to make a proposal you might want to hear."

In response, Ichigo nodded, pressing his arms a little tighter together.

"The conflict coming in the winter is, presently, not one you can deal with at your current level. I have no way of knowing how powerful Aizen's forces are likely to be, but the skill set of an Arrancar is not to be underestimated."

The jab at Ichigo's skill on top of the mention of Aizen made the young man bristle in annoyance, and Urahara raised his hands placidly, grinning a bit to calm him down.

"I have a few methods for speeding up your training so that you will be of use at that time. If you do your best, you will be ready, I promise you." His cheeky smile faded a bit, and he adjusted his hat. "But, of course...it's going to be rather risky. Your life will be on the line. Are you all right with that?"

"What kind of a stupid-ass question is that?" Ichigo said, scowling in annoyance. "If all of this nonsense is going to come to this town, then I'll be risking my life to fight, won't I?"

Urahara nodded. "Well, yes, but it doesn't hurt to ask. And the first rule of making any kind of plans in combat is to understand what you're going into before you jump into it." He took a moment to look at a still-healing Chad, and then focused on Ichigo once more. "On top of that, the strength you gain from this training venture will likely put whatever you did to Sado-kun just now to shame."

A cold chill ran down Ichigo's back at that statement. He had only hit Chad with a Getsuga Tenshou in response to the large energy blast that Chad had shot out of his armored arm, and even then, Ichigo only been aiming to nullify the blast, not cut through it like he had. On top of that, he wasn't feeling the strain he expected to feel from using Getsuga Tenshou with his armband still on—he could probably fire one or two more before he got actually exhausted. If he were to get stronger still, then what could happen if he lost control?

"You're worried," Yoruichi said, noting how the strawberry-blonde boy had become a bit more tense as he got lost in thought. "Don't worry. We'll make absolutely sure that you can bring your strength to heel through the first few stages of the training. The last part will be the most dangerous and you'll be fine by then." She gave him a cat-like grin. "That is, assuming you don't quit early."

"I don't quit," Ichigo said, annoyed out of his pensive state by her teasing. "I'll be ready to go whenever you are, Urahara."

"Get your schedule straight with Soul Society first, and then we'll talk about how we're going to handle your training," Urahara said. "I do have your friends to work on, as well."

Ichigo nodded curtly, and then blinked as he looked past Urahara to see Chad stand up, a bit dirty from his impact but otherwise unharmed.

"You all right now, buddy?" Ichigo asked, walking briskly over to Chad and Orihime. "I didn't mean to wreck you like that. I was just trying to stop that big blast of yours."

"I'm fine, Ichigo," Chad replied. "I wasn't hurt as badly as it looked." He smacked his unarmored fist into his chest a few times, and smiled a bit. "I've been working on hardening my Spiritual Pressure around my body, so most of what could have hit me got absorbed instead."

Ichigo returned the smile with a slight grin. "That's good." He then turned to Orihime, and the expression became noticeably apologetic. "I'm sorry, Inoue. I didn't mean to inconvenience you."

"It's OK, Kurosaki-kun," she replied, absently smoothing out wrinkles in her pink shirt and white skirt. "I don't do very much aside from this during our training sessions anyway. I'm...not suited for practicing the way that the others do, because of what Tsubaki does when I use him to attack." A look of sadness passed over her face for a moment, and given how closely Ichigo was observing her he would have had to be blind, or stupid, to miss it. Before he could comment, though, she put on a smile and tilted her head to the side a bit. "But I've at least managed to get to the point where I don't need my incantation to use my powers; I just need to call their names out. I've had lots of practice with blocking things and healing."

Ichigo nodded, still remembering the crestfallen expression that she'd hidden away. "To be honest, I think it suits you. You're..." He stopped for a moment, gathering the words he thought would work best. "You're not the type of person that likes to hurt people. And if did, you wouldn't be the Inoue I know."

Orihime seemed genuinely surprised by the compliment, and began to blush violently, knitting together all of her fingers except her thumbs and looking off in another direction. Realizing what he had done, Ichigo began to pick his brain to figure out what the hell he could say to make the situation less awkward.

Luckily, coincidence chose that moment to intercede.

"Hey, Orihime! Get over here! I just knocked Ishida on his ass and he could use a little help!"

Tatsuki's loud yell caused Ichigo and Orihime to look up in surprise, forgetting their individual embarrassments for the moment.

"I should get over there," Orihime, said quickly, her cheeks paling to a slight pink. "Excuse me for a second, Kurosaki-kun."

With that, she jogged over in Tatsuki's direction, moving much faster than anyone would have expected of someone with her build. Ichigo watched her for a moment, and wondered if she could learn how to Flash Step or even use Ishida's variant of the technique. Urahara and Yoruichi came over to where he stood and gave her an appraising glance as well.

"Her speed's improved," Yoruichi said with a sly smile to herself. "She must have been working on those exercises. This is good."

Ichigo arched an eyebrow and gave her a canny stare. "What exercises?"

"Nothing in particular."

The stare became a glare, but Yoruichi continued to smile up at him without faltering, and at length Ichigo simply sighed through his nose and shook his head. "Whatever." He then turned to Urahara again. "So you want me to start coming by as soon as my schedule with Soul Society is solid. I'll do it, but you already know that if you're doing something stupid, I'm going to have to report you, right?"

Urahara snapped open his fan and gave Ichigo a vague, friendly smile. "Well, at this point we're all going to be fighting the same enemy. I see no reason to antagonize Soul Society when we all have a stake in seeing this through."

Ichigo returned the smile with an unchanged expression, but Urahara didn't shrink back in the slightest at his unfriendly stare. At length, the young teenager shook his head and sighed.

"Be mysterious, then. But what I said still stands. And more importantly, if you do anything to put my friends in danger, then I'll be dealing with you myself—Soul Society or not."

Urahara simply nodded his agreement, and Ichigo only held his stare a moment longer before leaving to get Renji and Rukia. Urahara watched him go, finally letting his smile drop as Yoruichi briefly pressed into his side.

"Are you afraid, Kisuke?" she whispered.

"For them," he said. "Not so much for us and ours, because we at least can protect Jinta and Ururu. But if these kids get any more involved with Aizen, then..."

Yoruichi shook her head. "This is their town, Kisuke. They have to defend it. We can help them, but we can't stop them from fighting now. They wouldn't allow it that to happen."

Urahara said nothing in response, but gently squeezed her closer to his side.

That was all the answer she needed for the moment.

* * *

**Monday, August 26: Unknown Time**

**Hueco Mundo: "Las Noches" Fortress**

If there had been one thing that Sousuke Aizen had learned from his long, long time with the Gotei 13, it was patience.

From the very beginning of his plans, patience had been the sole constant, barring his own ambition and drive. It was patience that kept him dangling Hinamori around like a puppet on a string. It was patience that kept his facade of pleasant cordiality intact. It was patience that led him to give even the slightest of slight pushes to help Ichigo get better at Kidou.

And now, the object he treasured so much was grinding away at that patience far quicker than anything had before or since.

He was standing, brooding in the center of the room where the Hougyoku was stored, where the light above him only illuminated the thin pedestal it sat on and a small area around that. The Hougyoku itself, a small, dark sphere within a clear prism, was resting in his hand; he was examining it with a frown on his face.

At length, he put it back down on the podium and closed his eyes. Though he wasn't wearing them, he had to restrain the urge to adjust his glasses; it was a habit he'd fallen into while playing the role of the smiling buffoon, and it was proving hard to shake.

"It's cracked," he muttered to himself. "Forcing it out of hibernation was already difficult enough for the Espada. With it like this, if I were to try and complete the tool...it may break. Or backlash against me."

He folded his arms behind his back, staring into the darkness for a while as he mulled over the possibilities. He'd begun working with the Hougyoku once he'd been a part of Seireitei for so long that no one bothered to hassle him, and while he had made many more discoveries than Urahara had about its capabilities, he had yet to get any closer than its creator had to understanding why it was still so incomplete.

To compensate for both his lack of understanding and the increasing wear and tear on the Hougyoku as he made Arrancar with it, he'd been extremely deliberate about how he used it, starting with his hand-picked Espada and moving on down. Better for it to make weaker cannon fodder than weaker Espada, he'd reasoned, and while the logic held up, he hadn't found the ideal Hollow for his little project until just after the Hougyoku had begun to show more significant signs of strain.

"If I could study Urahara's Hougyoku I would probably be able to understand how to complete mine. But that would mean testing at least some of the Arrancar against him. And if he's heard of my death somehow, then he'll be prepared for that. However, if it's just him, then…"

After a few more moments of thought, he came to a decision, smiling slightly at last.

"Regardless, it will be a good chance to see what they can do. Yammy and Ulquiorra will be enough for a simple test."

He took one more look at the Hougyoku, sitting quietly on its pedestal, and left the room.

* * *

The Hollow world of Hueco Mundo, despite its general emptiness, was in its own way beautiful. White sands and dunes made up the landscape, with the ever-present moon hanging in the perpetual night sky. Looking carefully, one could see Hollows moving about to devour one another every so often, though in this particular section of Hueco Mundo it was somewhat rare to see plain Hollows anymore.

Gin Ichimaru, dressed in a white robe with billowing sleeves, looked out upon this landscape from his room, one of many in the cylindrical towers that made up the Las Noches fortress that Aizen had built in the land of the Hollows. From behind, he appeared to be simply enjoying the view, but looking at his face told a much different story.

His sharp blue eyes were open and his smile was gone, replaced by a thin, pensive frown. This was only because he knew that he was the only person in the general vicinity, and that pleased him; right now, he didn't feel like putting on any masks for anyone. He needed to be alone with his thoughts for just a moment longer, so that he could remember who he really was.

"I hope you found it, Ran," he said to himself. "If you didn't, you're all going to die. And I don't...I don't want that."

He clenched his fist.

"I didn't do all of this for you to get killed by Aizen. And I didn't tell you how I felt about you just to go and die on you before I could come back. So hold out. Work hard, and survive. If you die, then...then this was for nothing."

He turned away from the window and walked over to the bed, idly tossing away his clothes in preparation to sleep if he was able to do so.

He would instead spend the night tossing and turning, haunted by an image of Rangiku lying on the ground, glassy-eyed and unmoving.

* * *

**END OF SEMESTER**

* * *

_Teacher's Notes:_

_Whoo._

_Writer's block + busy real life = double month delay._

_To be honest with you I burned out just a little bit near the end, so that's why this took so long. Had to make sure I at least got a decent amount of questions answered and work done._

_Now, as for Second Semester, I'm not going to start it right away. I'm going to spend a while handling my own original story ideas, and if I can get my spark back I'll probably try out Bellflowers and Wagtails instead, mostly because I want to try writing romantic stories (though Sekirei is harem-y, I will try to be a bit more serious about the subject matter)._

_Things I can tell you about what will be in Second Semester if I write it: it is the Arrancar arc, and the Winter War is actually a Winter War. There will be a much heavier focus on action over the slower nature of First Semester's plot, and hopefully I can showcase some of the fan-made Shikai and Bankai I came up with._

* * *

_Student Review Corner:_

_All from Chapter 24._

_nbons: Good catch. But I will not confirm or deny. Not yet anyway._

_Love Psycho: I know the English names are rather funny but it's a matter of my odd personal preference. As for whether Ichigo saw Aizen's shikai, it hasn't been brought up yet, but assuming Second Semester goes up, you'll understand._

_Galymed: I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the story so much. I've done many a binge on a story that I've come across and found interesting so I understand where you're coming from with that feeling. I'm hoping you'll come back if/when the sequel goes up, as well._

* * *

_Well, this is it from me, for now. For all of you that read with me up to this point, I thank you. I hope this finds all of you in good health. Stay tuned and look around, I might be back soon._

_With regards,_

_~Zero-Sennin_


End file.
